tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/schools-275/articlesSchools – The Conversation2020-05-30T08:09:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387412020-05-30T08:09:08Z2020-05-30T08:09:08ZLockdown: we need to experiment with reopenings now to prevent a second wave<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338034/original/file-20200527-20223-tjovhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dice-scattered-on-wooden-table-cubes-1090492043">Lora_Aks/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With coronavirus infection rates falling – and the predicted <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w27141">economic</a> and <a href="https://project.nek.lu.se/publications/workpap/papers/wp20_9.pdf">welfare</a> costs of lockdown so high – governments across the world have tentatively started lifting restrictions and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52575313">reopening their economies</a>.</p>
<p>But to do this safely and prevent a second wave of infections, policymakers need to understand the effects that lockdown measures such as closing schools or businesses – known as non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) – are having on containing the virus. This will help predict the effects of rules being eased, and also show which interventions are most effective. </p>
<p>At the moment, though, we don’t know which lockdown measures work, and testing their effectiveness is difficult. So we need to get inventive. One overlooked way of assessing them is to use randomised controlled trials (RCTs).</p>
<h2>The unique power of randomisation</h2>
<p>When it comes to testing new medicines, there’s a broad consensus that RCTs are the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6235704/">gold standard</a>. These trials compare the outcomes of randomly selected groups of people that do and do not get a treatment. Researchers can use RCTs to be confident that a new medical procedure works. The same rules should apply when testing the effectiveness of NPIs. </p>
<p>By introducing or loosening an individual control measure in some randomly selected regions but not in others, the RCT method would offer the unique opportunity to show whether or not that intervention (and not some other common factor) causes a reduction in the disease transmission. What’s more, this method gives policymakers and researchers full control over implementing changes and directly measuring outcomes, reducing the scope for errors. These are advantages not shared with many other methods. </p>
<p>And although RCTs have not gathered much attention for studying NPIs during the current pandemic, economists and other social scientists have already shown that they can be used outside of clinical medicine. For example, over the past two decades RCTs have become a popular method among behavioural and developmental economists testing which interventions are most effective in <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.economics.050708.143235">alleviating poverty</a>.</p>
<h2>How an RCT would work in practice</h2>
<p>As an example, consider the question of reopening schools. </p>
<p>In many countries, schools are all scheduled to reopen at the same time (and at the same time as other lockdown measures are being lifted). Changing several policies all at once will make it hard to attribute any subsequent rise in infections to the removal of a specific measure.</p>
<p>Researchers in Norway have floated an <a href="https://www.ous-research.no/home/corona/Projects/20862">alternative plan</a>. Why not randomly split districts where opening schools is generally considered as safe into two groups? Schools in the “treatment” group would be allowed to open two or three weeks earlier than those in the “control” group (what’s known as a <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/05/20/science.abb6144">“phase-in” </a> approach). By closely monitoring and comparing infection numbers across districts, policymakers would gain a much clearer picture of whether opening schools causes cases to rise more rapidly, and by how much.</p>
<p>This example illustrates a broader principle. RCTs could be used to answer a large spectrum of policy questions about easing or introducing new lockdown restrictions. These could range from the number of students per classroom, to the requirement to wear masks in public, to the opening of parks and beaches.</p>
<p>However, as discussed in a <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/05/20/science.abb6144">recent study</a>, there are several things needed to make RCTs a successful tool for evaluating NPIs. Foremost is the ability to accurately measure and model the effects of an NPI on virus transmission, as well as the economic and psychological costs associated with either lifting or maintaining the intervention.</p>
<h2>RCTs can fix current errors in thinking</h2>
<p>Now that several countries are beginning to lift some restrictions, political commentators are quickly giving in to the temptation of <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31035-7/fulltext">comparing infection or fatality rates</a> between places with and without certain rules in place. However, such comparisons are easily misleading because they lack the random assignment that would show whether or not a particular measure has caused a reduction in disease transmission.</p>
<p>We would not trust a medical study that selectively treats patients based on their prior health status. And similarly, we should not place our trust in comparing fatality rates between states that have chosen to lift rules early and those that still have rules in place. Using the RCT method and lifting regulations randomly where it is safe would avoid falling into this trap.</p>
<p>Understanding which lockdown measures work is essential if we want to deal with a potential second wave of COVID-19 with more fine-grained policies that do not grind whole economies to a standstill. RCTs are the best way to identify such measures, and can help us optimally balance costs and benefits. </p>
<p>So why are policymakers reluctant to implement them more widely during this pandemic? </p>
<p>First, it would require them to admit that they do not yet know which policies work. Second, policymakers may worry that the public could <a href="https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/17048/EthicsRCT.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y">perceive lifting rules randomly as unethical</a>. </p>
<p>But in the current situation, where the optimal timing and extent of lifting or introducing different measures is unknown, such concerns may be largely unwarranted. Policymakers wouldn’t be knowingly withholding a beneficial intervention or introducing a harmful one if there are no existing reasons to believe that one policy is better than another. </p>
<p>Furthermore, if they follow a <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/05/20/science.abb6144">“phase-in”</a> strategy, an intervention considered as safe would ultimately be applied to the whole population, first to the treatment group and then, after a short delay, to the control group too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johannes Lohse receives funding from the University of Birmingham, the British Academy and UKRI. </span></em></p>We should make more use of randomised controlled trials – usually used in medicine – to understand which measures were effective in controlling COVID-19.Johannes Lohse, Lecturer in Economics, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1392282020-05-28T12:44:23Z2020-05-28T12:44:23ZCoronavirus: is it safe for children to return to school?<p>In England, the phased reopening of schools <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52792769">is due to begin on June 1</a>. But <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/24/poll-reveals-half-of-parents-unconvinced-that-school-is-safe-for-their-childrens-return">a recent poll of parents</a> has revealed that around half are unconvinced that their children are safe to return.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there is an increasing body of evidence that we can consider. In light of the widespread concern, we’ve reviewed the risks posed to children by COVID-19 and answered the most pressing questions.</p>
<h2>Are children less likely to catch coronavirus?</h2>
<p>To answer this, we can look at two important sources. The first is data from widespread community testing. In Iceland, 6% of the population <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2006100?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&amp;rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&amp;rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed">was screened early on in the pandemic (22,279 people)</a>. In the targeted testing group (which tested people either with symptoms, from high-risk areas or who had come into contact with someone with COVID-19), 6.7% of children under 10 tested positive, compared with 13.7% of people aged 10 or over. In the random population screening group, all under-10s tested negative, while 0.8% of persons 10 years or older tested positive.</p>
<p>And, in the municipality of Vo’ in northern Italy, <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.17.20053157v1">86% of the population (2,812 people) were tested</a> after a resident died early on in the epidemic. All 217 children aged 10 or under tested negative. Out of the 250 young people aged 11-20 who were screened, 1.2% were positive, compared with 3% for those 21 years and older.</p>
<p>The second useful source is detailed track-and-trace data linked to demographic information. A <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa450/5821281">Chinese study</a> analysed whether 105 COVID-19 patients transmitted the virus to their 392 household contacts. It revealed the risk of a child acquiring the virus from a positive household member was only 4%, compared with 17.1% for adults. Similarly, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/05/04/science.abb8001">contact tracing data</a> from Hunan province in February showed that 6.2% of children aged 0-14 who had been in contact with a COVID-19 patient caught the virus, compared with 10.4% of older people.</p>
<p>Thus, accumulating evidence from various places indicates that children are significantly less susceptible to infection than adults. </p>
<h2>Do children fall ill if infected?</h2>
<p>Young infants are generally more susceptible to picking up infections and falling ill. But for COVID-19 the evidence suggests it’s the other way around. <a href="https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/?_ga=2.75843350.200658073.1590091913-1987132820.1581620573">Public Health England data</a> up to May 22 showed that only 1.6% of all COVID-19 cases had been in children (aged 0-19), despite them making up 23.4% of the population. </p>
<p>Of course, this data is influenced by many factors, including testing strategy. For example, very young children may not be tested in the community, while testing in hospitals is likely to include more seriously ill patients, who tend to be adults. But reports from other countries consistently show low numbers of cases among children, with milder disease compared to adults. </p>
<p>Data from <a href="https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2020/03/16/peds.2020-0702.1.long">China</a> and the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6914e4.htm">USA</a> and a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00431-020-03684-7">review</a> of studies published up to May 1 show that the illness in children is either asymptomatic, mild or moderate in 88-97% of cases. Only about 0.6-2% of children are admitted to intensive care and 0-0.18% of cases are associated with a fatal outcome. </p>
<p>This compares with a case fatality rate of 3.5-3.6% for those in their 60s, 8.0-12.8% for those in their 70s and 14.8-20.2% for those 80 or over, as reported in <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763667">Chinese and Italian cohorts</a>. Why children are less affected remains unclear, although <a href="https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&amp;pid=S1807-59322020000100108&amp;lng=en&amp;nrm=iso">several hypotheses</a> have been raised.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/paediatric-inflammatory-multisystem-syndrome-and-sars-cov-2-rapid-risk-assessment">novel syndrome</a> in children (called the paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, or PIMS-TS) has gained increasing attention recently. This condition remains rare, with about 230 suspected cases across Europe and two fatalities reported. A British Paediatric Surveillance Unit study is underway to gain further insight into the condition.</p>
<h2>Do children transmit coronavirus to others?</h2>
<p>It is difficult to formally quantify the extent to which children contribute to transmission of the coronavirus. There is, however, increasing circumstantial evidence suggesting that their contribution is limited and that children are far from being the “super-spreaders” that they can be with seasonal flu.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.26.20044826v1">analysis</a> of 31 household transmission clusters found that in only three was the index case a child. And a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/apa.15371">systematic review</a> on children and coronavirus transmission found that, although able to transmit it like any other individual, children seem much less likely to do so.</p>
<p>In the Netherlands, the tracing of more than 700 contacts of patients with COVID-19 has shown <a href="https://www.rivm.nl/en/novel-coronavirus-covid-19/children-and-covid-19">different infection rates depending on the patient’s age</a>. For patients aged 18 and under, none of their contacts tested positive. In patients 19 years or older, however, 9% of their contacts were positive. </p>
<h2>Is it safe for schools to reopen?</h2>
<p>Denmark was the first country to reopen schools in Europe, and others such as Norway, Germany, France and the Netherlands have followed. In Denmark, the virus’s <a href="https://www.ssi.dk/aktuelt/nyheder/2020/05_smittetrykket-falder-trods-genaabning_11052020">reproduction number</a> rose from 0.6 to 1.0 after opening schools, but came down again within a week. As of May 12 there were no reports of outbreaks in Swedish schools, which have remained open during the pandemic. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://ncirs.org.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/NCIRS%20NSW%20Schools%20COVID_Summary_FINAL%20public_26%20April%202020.pdf">New South Wales</a> in Australia, schools have remained open. Analysis of 18 cases that occurred in 15 schools showed that, out of 735 children who had close contact, only two (0.3%) were infected. None of the 128 staff who had close contact were infected.</p>
<p>The available evidence would suggest that the risks posed by children returning to school is small. The potential for transmission of coronavirus within schools can be reduced by adequate infection control measures, such as pupils physically distancing from staff whenever possible, frequent handwashing, and prompt testing and isolation of individuals with possible COVID-19 symptoms. Additional measures such as children remaining within a small peer group (“social bubble”) and increasing the time spent outdoors should also be considered.</p>
<p>School plays a critical role in the <a href="https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000701">wellbeing of children</a>. It is not only a place to learn, but to socialise and exercise, and for some children to simply be safe. While some schools provide effective online learning, this is far from universal, and children from more disadvantaged backgrounds are increasingly deprived of crucial education by school closures.</p>
<p>We therefore conclude, <a href="https://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2020/05/19/archdischild-2020-319474">like other colleagues have also recently done</a>, that a progressive return of children back to school, supported by adequate preventive measures and an effective test, track and isolate strategy, is now advisable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research suggests that children are less likely than adults to catch the virus, pass it on or fall seriously ill because of it. A progressive return of children to school is therefore advisable.Stéphane Paulus, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Paediatric Infectious Diseases, University of OxfordElse Bijker, Clinical Lecturer in Paediatrics, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1384892020-05-18T01:18:52Z2020-05-18T01:18:52ZChildren on coronavirus: 'Don’t just tell us to wash our hands and say it will be okay'<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334729/original/file-20200513-156656-1ia03jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=32%2C43%2C7265%2C4825&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children’s lives in the UK have been changed by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/supporting-children-through-the-coronavirus-pandemic-lessons-from-the-autistic-community-134567">COVID-19 pandemic</a>. Many are no longer attending school, seeing grandparents or friends and are being asked to stay at home with their families to save lives. </p>
<p>Children are learning, connecting and doing PE remotely, drawing rainbows and clapping every week for key workers. But like the adults in their lives, many will <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2352-4642%2820%2930109-7">be experiencing uncertainty, confusion</a> and have questions about COVID-19 and the world they are now living in.</p>
<p>There has been an overwhelming amount of health information and misinformation about COVID-19 – which has been described as an “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32302535/">infodemic</a>”. Many resources have been developed specifically for children, to provide information and to help them cope with their worries and concerns. There are <a href="https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cco-childrens-guide-to-coronavirus.pdf">leaflets</a>, <a href="https://www.firstnews.co.uk/">children’s newspapers</a>, TV programmes like <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround">Newsround</a>, <a href="https://nosycrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Coronavirus-A-Book-for-Children.pdf">short stories</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&amp;v=oMHacLHchI0&amp;feature=emb_logo">video clips</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-52406475/coronavirus-when-will-pandemic-end-and-other-questions-from-kids">Q&amp;A sessions</a>. </p>
<p>These colourful and child-friendly resources tell children about the virus and how to stay safe through social distancing and washing their hands. The resources include tips on how to cope and activities to keep busy during lockdown. But most of these resources have been developed by adults and may not address children’s questions and concerns.</p>
<h2>Questions and answers</h2>
<p>In our study, with colleagues Bernie Carter, Lucy Blake and Jennifer Kirton, <a href="https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/health/research/children-and-covid19/">we asked</a> children aged seven to 12 years old how they accessed information about COVID-19 and their understanding of the virus and the need for lockdown. </p>
<p>They told us that their parents were their main source of information and that they want to know more than “it will be okay” or that they need to “wash their hands”. They want answers to questions such as “why don’t children get poorly?”, “how many people are dying each day?” and “how will we know that it’s really safe to go out when lockdown ends?”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334737/original/file-20200513-156679-1nppd33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334737/original/file-20200513-156679-1nppd33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334737/original/file-20200513-156679-1nppd33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334737/original/file-20200513-156679-1nppd33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334737/original/file-20200513-156679-1nppd33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334737/original/file-20200513-156679-1nppd33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334737/original/file-20200513-156679-1nppd33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Help children understand the impact of COVID-19 on their lives through open and honest conversations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/black-father-daughter-relaxing-bed-look-411239116">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also asked parents how they accessed information about COVID-19 and how they shared this information with their children. We found that many parents tried to shield their children from “the worst of it”, and limit their child’s access to the constant stream of COVID-19 information. Most children however, are aware the world is in crisis and people are dying from the virus – as one child we spoke to explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t know what is happening, because people play it down and tell me it can’t kill people, but people are dying every day.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Withholding information</h2>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367493519870654">Our previous research</a> shows that parents can find it hard to judge what information is “right” to share with their children about difficult topics. This can lead to parents withholding information to try and protect their child from becoming upset. </p>
<p>In our study, we’ve found that many parents are making similar decisions in relation to sharing COVID-19 information with their children – as one mother of a seven-year-old explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[We share] whatever info won’t cause too much anxiety and we downplay it. [We] mainly just discuss how we can protect ourselves. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Typically parents talked about reassuring their child that “everything will be completely fine”. But we know from previous research that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cch.12692">empty reassurances</a> without appropriate facts and information can result in children being left to “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15669932/">fill in the blanks</a>”, using their imagination and snippets of information gleaned through different channels. </p>
<p>Indeed, being told “don’t worry” can be unhelpful when a person is trying to understand what’s going on and find ways to cope with a situation. And this can actually increase <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20227831/">children’s anxiety and feelings of uncertainty</a>.</p>
<h2>What to do instead</h2>
<p>Children are an essential part of the national effort to manage this pandemic. They have a right to be provided with information that is of <a href="https://www.unicef.org/sop/convention-rights-child-child-friendly-version">importance to their wellbeing</a>. This right is not being addressed by simply telling children to wash their hands, stay in and not worry. Children should be able to ask questions and explore what is going on “out there” with adults they trust.</p>
<p>Colourful child-friendly resources are useful to begin conversations, but are not an end point. Our findings show that children have questions about COVID-19 that are not being addressed. These questions will differ from child to child. </p>
<p>As adults, we should acknowledge that we do not know “all the answers”, and be confident enough to open up conversations with children. These conversations should happen at multiple levels – and be aided by campaigns where children’s questions and concerns can be acknowledged and addressed nationally. Schools and teachers should also be involved to help support learning opportunities and build understanding. Most important though are the conversations children will have with their parents and carers. </p>
<p>A good starting point for these conversations is to ask your children, “what do you want to know?” and “what questions do you have?” Through doing this, not only can children be empowered to identify their information needs and concerns, but it also means that adults do not need to simply rely on providing empty reassurance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Bray has received funding from Innovate UK for previous work examining children&#39;s information needs in relation to hospital procedures. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Saron and Jo Protheroe do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parents may try to shield children from information about COVID-19, but their important questions need answering.Lucy Bray, Professor in Child Health Literacy, Edge Hill UniversityHolly Saron, Research Fellow, Edge Hill University, Edge Hill UniversityJo Protheroe, Professor of General Practice, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1386002020-05-14T06:47:01Z2020-05-14T06:47:01Z'We had no sanitiser, no soap and minimal toilet paper': here's how teachers feel about going back to the classroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334840/original/file-20200513-167731-1gyhqyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-student-watching-lesson-online-studying-1676998306">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After weeks of remote learning due to COVID-19, many school students in New South Wales <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-11/sydney-morning-briefing-monday-may-11/12232616">began a staggered return to classrooms</a> this week. Students in other states, such as some in <a href="https://qed.qld.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media/novel-coronavirus/frequently-asked-questions-for-parents">Queensland</a>, were also back in the classroom from Monday.</p>
<p>Others like Victoria are weeks away from returning. Premier Daniel Andrews <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-12/coronavirus-victorian-school-students-back-to-classroom-learning/12235616">said</a> some students (in prep, years 1 and 2, and years 11 and 12) will go back to school on May 26. And Western Australia’s Premier Mark McGowan <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-14/all-wa-students-to-return-to-school-as-coronavirus-absences-end/12245712">announced</a> all school students in the state must return to the classroom from May 18.</p>
<p>We surveyed more than 10,000 public school teachers in NSW to find out how they felt about being at school at the end of term one, their thoughts on remote learning and feelings about returning to school.</p>
<p>Our survey – with responses from April 17 to May 10 – showed fewer than one in four teachers felt safe working on the school site at the end of term one. But nearly 95% felt safe working from home. </p>
<div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props='{"tweetId":"1242408428753932288"}'></div>
<p>During the school holidays, when the survey began, only 13% of teachers reported feeling happy to continue working in direct contact with children and colleagues.</p>
<p>So, has the flattening of the curve has been enough to reassure teachers it is now safe to work with students and colleagues in schools?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-have-never-felt-so-frightened-australias-coronavirus-schools-messaging-must-address-teacher-concerns-135934">'I have never felt so frightened': Australia's coronavirus schools messaging must address teacher concerns</a>
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<h2>Anxiety about being in the classroom</h2>
<p>At the end of term one and the beginning of term two in NSW, many teachers were delivering online lessons from their classrooms to students at home, as well as to smaller numbers of students who continued to attend school.</p>
<p>Almost all these teachers felt pressured to continue working on the school site. </p>
<p>One teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As an older teacher with an older husband at home who has compromised lungs, I feel very anxious about being at school. I do not appreciate, after teaching in the public system for 40 years, being treated as a guinea pig and a political scapegoat.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Although teachers found remote learning difficult, more than 95% agreed it was needed to control the outbreak. More than 60% felt it would have been beneficial to introduce remote learning earlier.</p>
<p>More than 60% of teachers reported high levels of anxiety due to risks posed by the virus. One teacher said about returning to school:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I worry about teacher health if we return to face-to-face learning. My health condition has changed recently, and my anxiety about potentially having to return to school is increasing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Much of the argument for reopening schools has focused on children being less likely to fall ill from the virus than adults. But many teachers argue that belies the fact children can be infected and transmit the virus.</p>
<p>As one teacher told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Students have contact with adults, and students can be carriers. It is ludicrous to expect teachers to return to work and put themselves and their families at risk. It is also ludicrous to ask teachers to be teaching effectively on site, when their stress levels will be going through the roof with fear of exposure to the virus.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many said schools needed better protective equipment. In the lead-up to remote learning, schools had not been provided with masks or gloves. Many schools said they didn’t have enough soap or hand sanitiser.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had no sanitiser, no soap and minimal toilet paper. We were not provided masks, gloves or any protective gear. Teachers had to buy their own hand soap for staff rooms. As time went on we had less and less. With the shopping centres emptying while we were working, we were not even able to buy supplies ourselves. The conditions are disgraceful.</p>
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<p>One teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If protective equipment [masks and gloves] and regular cleaning by an external service were provided as well as sanitiser and soap, I feel it would be safe to have students back on a reduced timetable if needed.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Teachers’ concerns for their students</h2>
<p>More than 80% of teachers felt unprepared for remote learning and faced a steep learning curve. But more than 80% reported being well supported by colleagues and school executives.</p>
<p>Overall, around 70% felt the arrangements were an adequate substitute given the circumstances, but only 25% were confident their students were learning well. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-are-moving-online-but-not-all-children-start-out-digitally-equal-134650">Schools are moving online, but not all children start out digitally equal</a>
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</em>
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<p>To support families with limited online resources, more than one-third of public school teachers printed and delivered pen and paper packages to students.</p>
<p>More than 80% were particularly worried about students with special needs, many of whom are at higher risk from the disease and also vulnerable to educational disruption. </p>
<p>One teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Most of my students have very limited access to internet […] most rarely make contact and are clearly struggling to engage in work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most teachers (80%) felt they were well resourced to teach remotely. But only about one-third felt their students were well resourced at home. Some 40% were clear many students were not properly resourced, and about 25% were unsure.</p>
<p>About half of the teachers felt frustrated by insufficient resources and daily technical difficulties.</p>
<h2>An upside to this education disruption?</h2>
<p>Although teachers faced many challenges, the majority agreed the pandemic response had also had some positive outcomes.</p>
<p>Nearly 90% agreed there was an up-skilling in digital and online education. Large proportions also agreed the pandemic had created more time for families to connect, communicate and work together, more teacher collaboration and greater community respect for teachers.</p>
<p>Finally, perhaps surprisingly, more than 60% agreed the epidemic had created a positive disruption to the current school system. It seems a majority of teachers have been waiting for a dramatic shift to their work. COVID-19 might not have been what they were expecting but many were glad something had changed.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think this whole situation is an excellent opportunity […] to highlight the reasons behind the inequities that are coming to light. My own experience has been made more positive due to extremely supportive and amazing school executive staff.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A survey of 10,000 public school teachers in NSW looked at how they felt about being at school at the end of term one, their thoughts on remote learning and their feelings about returning to school.Rachel Wilson, Associate Professor in Education, University of SydneyWilliam Mude, Public Health Lecturer, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1378182020-05-05T12:57:00Z2020-05-05T12:57:00ZCoronavirus: there is an urgent need to re-open schools – this is how to make it happen<p>UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he wants nothing more than to see schools back up and running following their closure during the coronavirus lockdown. But he insists he cannot yet give a date for that to happen since there were “no plans” to open schools over the summer while the UK awaits “scientific advice”.</p>
<p>In contrast, Denmark <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/de2027d4-5153-462b-a38d-75b7a5ddad17">began reopening schools</a> in April. Germany and France will reopen progressively after May 4 and 11, respectively. Different contexts, different decisions in Europe. </p>
<p>As the director general of the World Health Organization <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-mission-briefing-on-covid-19---12-march-2020">said on March 12</a>, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic is a question of “finding a delicate balance between health protection, the prevention of economic and social risks and respect for human rights”. The reopening of schools is seen as a symbolic and practical herald of recovery. These are important political decisions and must be based on robust evidence.</p>
<p>School closures affect all students and play a role in <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019">amplifying inequalities</a>. The school is both a <a href="http://didier-jourdan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Jourdan-et-Institut-national-de-pre%CC%81vention-et-de%CC%81ducation-pour-la-sante%CC%81-2011-Health-education-in-schools-the-challenge-of-teac.pdf">living environment</a> for students and staff and an education setting. Besides the impact on learning and the consequences for the mental health of students, closure deprives the most vulnerable students of school meals and support from education, health and social staff.</p>
<p>Confinement also aggravates economic problems for families, which can lead to <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/covid-19-pandemic-tackling-the-dramatic-increase-in-cases-of-violence-against-women">increases in episodes of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect</a>. Preliminary neuroscience research suggests that the brains of young people need to be <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/7afmd">wired for social connection</a> during childhood and adolescence in order to maintain health and wellbeing. Depriving children of social stimuli during this critical period of development can have long-term consequences.</p>
<p>What’s more, a recent literature review showed that, in previous epidemics, transmission in schools was <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30095-X/fulltext">very low or absent</a>. Modelling studies for the COVID-19 pandemic predict that school closures would prevent only 2-4% of deaths – far less than other social distancing interventions. This suggests that reopening schools could be the right option, if combined with barrier use, social distancing and a robust programme of testing, contact tracing and isolation.</p>
<p>Scientific knowledge alone is not enough to guide policies and practices; it is necessary to link it with other sources of knowledge – particularly from the experience of other countries and the knowledge of professionals in the field. Convergence of data is needed to identify what is desirable and achievable.</p>
<h2>Learning from countries that have reopened schools</h2>
<p>Even if comparisons are limited by cultural and social differences, learning from the successes of countries that have kept schools running is helpful. </p>
<p>Taiwan, for example, has been widely recognised for <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/taiwans-vice-president-chen-chien-jen-countrys-fight-covid-19/">successfully managing</a> the crisis. The number of cases has remained very limited, largely because institutions have learned from past epidemics and were prepared. Testing the close contacts of people who were infected and then quarantining them for 14 days at home was a primary strategy for containment.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3878803">Differentiated school closure rules</a> were also enacted at the national level. If one teacher or student is affected, they are quarantined for 14 days at home. If two or more teachers or students have a confirmed infection, the school is closed. And if a third of schools in a district or city have to take this measure, then all schools in the area are closed too. </p>
<p>In classrooms and canteens, students are separated from each other by plastic partitions between desks, systematic temperature checks are carried out and masks are compulsory. A <a href="https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202003170020">survey of secondary school students</a> showed the majority (70%) considered that these measures had not affected their learning.</p>
<h2>Making it work</h2>
<p>The challenge is to design an education system that delivers effective learning while protecting staff and students. Available data allow us to identify four benchmarks that can guide both political decisions and the action of parents, students and professionals.</p>
<p><strong>1. A differentiated system</strong></p>
<p>The level of epidemic risk and the vulnerability of students differs across regions and even from one school to another. That means it won’t be possible to reopen schools the same way everywhere.</p>
<p>A framework for decisions should be produced at the national level, but elected representatives and education professionals should be empowered to make decisions at the local level. This should be done in extensive consultation with education managers, administrators, teachers, families, students, health and social workers as well as technical support experts and those working in safety and transport. The aim must be to create a <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/nasuwt-boss-my-five-conditions-schools-reopen">strategy that works within the local context</a>.</p>
<p>Professionals need training, intersectoral health and education support and high-quality resources. The plan must include public health risk assessments of services outside direct school control – such as public transport used by children and parents.</p>
<p>Finally, because of the lower learning autonomy of young children, and the early onset of social and educational inequalities, priority should be given – as in Denmark, France and Germany – to primary school reopening before secondary schools.</p>
<p><strong>2. Organising to protect students and staff</strong></p>
<p>Research confirms the value of social distancing combined with frequent hand washing or sanitiser use. Mask-wearing remains a controversial issue, although a recent review recommends widespread adoption in line with the <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/369/bmj.m1435.full.pdf">“precautionary principle”</a> when scientific data remain elusive. The mask offers limited protection, but it is a visual reminder and could provide a “behavioural boost”. A robust reopening plan must include all these hygiene measures.</p>
<p>The number of students present simultaneously in different spaces can be reduced by specifying methods of circulation in the establishment. Classrooms can be reorganised to increase the space between students and breaks and lunchtimes can be staggered. If teachers move between classrooms instead of students, circulation around buildings can be reduced. School weeks could also be shortened and different groups of students can attend on different days throughout the week. School transport will need reorganisation.</p>
<p><strong>3. A hybrid approach</strong></p>
<p>The lockdown period has led to the exploration of new teaching methods, such as online learning. In countries where these changes have been studied, a large majority of teachers and parents have adapted well to distance teaching and learning, but a minority face <a href="https://5minutes.rtl.lu/actu/luxembourg/a/1494330.html">significant difficulties</a>.</p>
<p>Specific arrangements will be needed for students who need more support. In the UK, the launch of a scheme to supply laptops and routers to disadvantaged students during lockdown <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-free-laptops-disadvantaged-students">highlights</a> the fact that some homes lack the equipment, quiet space and broadband connectivity students need. </p>
<p>Given that it will most likely be necessary to reorganise school and home attendance times, there is already a need to prepare for hybrid teaching arrangements. That will mean thinking more often about the individual needs of pupils to help reduce inequalities.</p>
<p><strong>4. Redefining our vision of the epidemic</strong></p>
<p>Absenteeism of both students and professionals can be very high during epidemics due to both illness and voluntary withdrawal. Everyone, therefore, needs to be empowered to understand why schools are reopened even if the “war” against the virus is not won. They need to be helped to develop a more operational vision of the epidemic for their own ongoing daily lives.</p>
<p>The epidemics of Sars, Mers, HIV/AIDS and Ebola disease were controlled mainly by screening and population-based approaches to protection. This calls for the development of citizen skills and personal responsibility. To understand how to live with the virus, it seems important to help everyone to understand that a new balance will be established – not by the virus disappearing, but by limiting its transmission.</p>
<p>When classes reopen, it will be essential for students to reinforce their knowledge of microorganisms (and not only viruses) and to have a more ecological vision of the relationship between microbes and everyday health. They will need to work on media literacy and critical thinking. Existing curriculum materials such as the EU <a href="https://www.e-bug.eu/">“e-bug”</a> series may be helpful in this regard.</p>
<h2>An evidence and practice-based re-opening</h2>
<p>Drawing on all available research and experiential global evidence can not only help to implement the most suitable solutions – it can also empower the entire population to understand and act effectively within the confines of the present situation.</p>
<p>It will be necessary to review ways of working, strengthen work between sectors that operate around schools, consolidate knowledge from various sources, and develop decision-making at the regional and local level. Systematic monitoring and dedicated research are also needed to underpin future responses that limit education disruption and promote health for all.</p>
<p><em>Thanks to Min Chien Tsai from Fu jen University, Taipei and Valérie Ivassenko from the UNESCO Chair and WHO Collaborating Centre in Global Health &amp; Education, Clermont Auvergne, France.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Didier Jourdan a reçu des financements de la Fondation MGEN pour la santé publique.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Marmot received research grants from government research agencies and medical charities his whole professional life. He was an MRC Research Professor.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Gray is a member of the Labour party, Vice President (Europe) of the International Association for Adolescent Health and Governing Council member of the advocacy coalition NCD Child.</span></em></p>Some countries are making it work – and the rest could learn from them.Didier Jourdan, Professor, holder of the UNESCO chair and WHO collaborating center for Global Health & Education, Université Clermont AuvergneMichael Marmot, Director, Institute of Health Equity; Professor, Dept of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCLNicola Gray, Affiliated Researcher, UNESCO Chair for Global Health & Education, Université Clermont AuvergneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1372512020-04-30T20:08:16Z2020-04-30T20:08:16ZSending children back to school during coronavirus has human rights implications<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331611/original/file-20200430-42908-fv5g60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Debates about a return to classroom learning in Australia are fraught, and parents have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-28/coronavirus-wa-school-closure-ends-but-parents-face-dilemma/12190924">mixed feelings</a> as to what may be best for their children. </p>
<p>This confusion is likely influenced by a sense of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-24/wa-teachers-urge-parents-to-keep-children-home-term-two/12180836">mixed messages</a> from <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-its-safe-for-kids-to-go-back-to-school-137064">different approaches</a> around the country. </p>
<p>For example, term 2 began this week in <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/04/26/coronavirus-schools-open-nsw/">New South Wales</a>. From week 3, children in government schools have been allocated a day per week when they should learn on site. In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-28/coronavirus-wa-school-closure-ends-but-parents-face-dilemma/12190924">Western Australia</a>, parents have been asked to decide if their children will return to the classroom, learn online from home or learn from home with hard copy materials. The situation in both states is to be reviewed around week 3. </p>
<p>In contrast, all <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/Pages/coronavirus-advice-schools.aspx">Victorian</a> students who can learn from home must do so. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-28/coronavirus-canberra-school-students-begin-first-day-of-term-two/12191774">ACT</a> is also proceeding with online learning for all children who can be supervised at home. </p>
<h2>Human rights relevant to schooling</h2>
<p>Australia lacks a comprehensive human rights framework, although human rights laws have been passed in the <a href="https://hrc.act.gov.au/humanrights/">ACT</a>, <a href="https://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/human-rights/the-charter">Victoria</a> and <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/asmade/act-2019-005">Queensland</a>. Little commentary to date has considered the return to school in a human rights context. </p>
<p>Human rights are interconnected values. Many are relevant to this issue and the <a href="http://www.broadagenda.com.au/home/h/?mc_cid=2453ee6ee5&amp;mc_eid=b4474e7b50">pandemic</a> more <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062632">broadly</a>. </p>
<p>Under international law, all people have the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx">health</a>. The right to health extends beyond access to health care. Importantly in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, it <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Factsheet31.pdf">includes</a> a right to the prevention, treatment and control of disease. </p>
<p>All people, and particularly children, also have a right to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx">education</a>. This right is described as essential for people to <a href="https://www.right-to-education.org/sites/right-to-education.org/files/resource-attachments/CESCR_General_Comment_13_en.pdf">participate effectively</a> in a free society. Countries are obliged to protect the right by ensuring, at a minimum, free and compulsory primary education and a system of schools to provide equitable access to education at each level. </p>
<p>International law also confirms the right of all people not only to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx">work</a>, but to enjoy just and favourable conditions of work. This includes a right to <a href="https://coronavirus.fairwork.gov.au/coronavirus-and-australian-workplace-laws/health-and-safety-in-the-workplace-during-coronavirus">safe and healthy</a> working conditions. </p>
<h2>Human rights issues arising from a return to the classroom</h2>
<p>How can we balance human rights implications of a return to classroom learning, when rights may come into tension with each other? </p>
<p>Most human rights can be constrained, although not to the point where their essence is denied. <a href="https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/1984/07/Siracusa-principles-ICCPR-legal-submission-1985-eng.pdf">Limitations</a> on rights must be necessary in response to a pressing public or social need. They must also pursue a legitimate aim and be proportionate to that aim. </p>
<p>When we consider rights in tension at this time, it is clear a right to health must be the primary focus. A weakening of protective measures may heighten the risk of a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30845-X/fulltext">second wave </a> of the virus. </p>
<p>A return to classroom learning should be made in consideration of the rights of both staff and children to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">enjoy the highest attainable standard of health</a>. Australian parents and school staff are being encouraged to view schools as <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-its-safe-for-kids-to-go-back-to-school-137064">safe environments</a>.</p>
<p>However, the advice for those who are <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/what-you-need-to-know-about-coronavirus-covid-19#who-is-most-at-risk">at risk</a> continues to be to stay at home. While some jurisdictions are moving to require in-person attendance, little has been said about how at-risk staff and students are to be protected at school or supported to continue in isolation. </p>
<p>Aspects of a return to school also pose mental health risks. Some students who require set daily routines may become anxious when required to attend only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/21/nsw-students-to-return-to-school-one-day-a-week-from-mid-may">one day</a> per week. Others, especially high school students in their final year, should perhaps be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/year-12-kindy-should-get-priority-when-school-goes-back-teachers-federation-20200409-p54inb.html">prioritised</a> to return as a cohort in order to complete their education. </p>
<p>For teachers, there are significant <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/life/teachers-working-through-coronavirus-pandemic-need-kindness/12075544">workload implications</a> in managing both in-class and online cohorts of students. The right of teachers to enjoy <a href="https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/HRC/35/21">good mental health</a> may also be compromised by a sense of risk in the return to classroom teaching. The potential for stress-related illnesses is obvious among <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/nyregion/coronavirus-homeschooling-parents.html?action=click&amp;module=Top%20Stories&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;fbclid=IwAR1qthPAwVWGHOcRU5uTALwidLRPjtDzPcAOTt8lfDDz6o3f13-ahXiAZrk">parents</a>, many of whom have found learning from home taxing on their mental health. </p>
<p>There is a widespread desire to support the right of students to education. Schools in Australia have mostly remained open throughout the peak of the crisis for children of essential workers and children who are safer at school than at home. This approach was a measured means of balancing rights to health and education and could be maintained for a longer period across the country. </p>
<p>It has been argued <a href="https://theconversation.com/nsw-staggered-return-to-school-some-students-may-need-in-class-time-more-than-others-136837">here</a> that the “staggered” return to school in some states ought to prioritise the needs of children at certain key stages of learning. </p>
<p>We add that the most vulnerable children should also be prioritised. For example, greater equity in access to education at this time may call for special arrangements to include students with <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-2.html">disabilities</a>, chronic illnesses or mental health conditions. Students who lack at-home access to online learning could also be prioritised in a return to the classroom. </p>
<p>The physical environment in schools is a further complicating factor, particularly in terms of teachers’ rights to safe conditions of work. The <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/coronavirus/coronavirus-crisis-prime-minister-scott-morrison-says-social-distancing-measures-will-not-be-required-in-classrooms-when-schools-return-ng-b881529393z">prime minister</a> is adamant schools are exempt from social-distancing requirements. Yet those states returning students to the classroom are implicitly undermining that message by setting maximum numbers and requiring staggered break times and other measures. </p>
<p>Many teachers feel confused and stressed about how they can do their work <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/pages/covid-19-virus.html">safely</a>. This is unsurprising, given some <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-28/victoria-coronavirus-cases-rise-by-two-as-massive-testing-begins/12190944">states</a> and other <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52291326">countries</a> are taking much more cautious approaches to the health and safety of school staff.</p>
<h2>No magic right answer</h2>
<p>The balancing process between human rights values at this time is highly complex and beyond what we can hope to resolve in this article. And human rights analyses cannot deliver us a simple “right” answer as to how the return to classroom learning should be managed. </p>
<p>What human rights give us is another frame through which to consider these fundamental challenges. There are obvious economic and educational imperatives to prompt a return to classroom learning. Our national debate could be richer and more inclusive if it also included human rights claims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How can we balance human rights implications of a return to classroom learning, when rights may come into tension with each other?Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of NewcastleDonna McNamara, Lecturer in Law, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1365752020-04-27T19:49:19Z2020-04-27T19:49:19ZA shout-out to teachers: Why their expertise matters in the coronavirus pandemic, and always<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330191/original/file-20200423-47784-2wwvrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C194%2C1572%2C1222&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will Springfield, 8, reacts with joy to seeing Ms. Chriss, his Grade 2 teacher, drive by in a teachers&#39; neighbourhood parade in Suwanee, Ga., March 25, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teaching helps to ensure essential learning. The closure of schools since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis deprives children and youth of opportunities for development and improvement.</p>
<p>The impacts of this decision are likely to be <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/managing-impact-covid-19-education-systems-around-world-how-countries-are-preparing?cid=ECR_TT_worldbank_EN_EXT">major</a>, particularly for <a href="https://cdn.journals.lww.com/jphmp/Abstract/2008/07000/Mitigating_Pandemic_Influenza__The_Ethics_of.11.aspx">vulnerable</a> students, especially disadvantaged students, who generally have access to fewer educational opportunities outside the school setting.</p>
<p>Students with learning difficulties may also be particularly affected when there is a prolonged interruption in school. The burden of catching up after a period of prolonged inactivity may precipitate dropping out of school for some.</p>
<p>The current situation in Québec and <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/137-billion-students-now-home-covid-19-school-closures-expand-ministers-scale-multimedia">elsewhere in the world</a> makes it necessary to implement an action plan to maintain learning and minimize the inequalities and negative effects that could result from this prolonged interruption in schooling.</p>
<p>Our group of researchers is examining <a href="https://cudc.uqam.ca/en/home/">educational systems in contexts of emergency, reconstruction and development</a> at the University of Québec at Montréal. Our fields of expertise are education in emergency situations, and in learning and teaching. </p>
<p>Research in the field of <a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10081593/">education in crisis situations</a> allows us to identify three main orientations for educational planning during the pandemic: supporting parents, identifying student needs and managing educational resources in collaboration with teachers.</p>
<h2>Parents need help</h2>
<p>While schools are closed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6155.2009.00229.x">parents are asked</a> to teach and facilitate learning at home. Many may have difficulty doing this, which can become a major source of <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-03-18-teacher-interrupted-leaning-into-social-emotional-learning-amid-the-covid-19-crisis">stress</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325825/original/file-20200406-191235-gno9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325825/original/file-20200406-191235-gno9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325825/original/file-20200406-191235-gno9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325825/original/file-20200406-191235-gno9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325825/original/file-20200406-191235-gno9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325825/original/file-20200406-191235-gno9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325825/original/file-20200406-191235-gno9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teachers can give parents ideas and recommendations to follow with their children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Parents are already putting a lot of pressure on themselves regarding their children’s education. In a crisis situation, schools must therefore be especially attentive to parents and respond to their concerns. The priority is to ensure that every family has access to resources to maintain and consolidate learning.</p>
<p>Provinces have a responsibility to mobilize and consult with teachers. The idea is to put measures in place that ideally will ensure the consolidation, or at least the maintenance, of learning. This can reduce the negative effects of a prolonged interruption when classes are resumed.</p>
<h2>Translating learning expectations</h2>
<p>In addition, teachers should set clear and realistic goals, which should come from education ministries, and tailor these for each child. This action by teachers is particularly important for the most vulnerable students and their parents, with whom it is important to communicate regularly and make frequent assessments of their situation.</p>
<p>Let’s also recognize the emotional burden teachers carry if they make these efforts and can’t succeed in making contact with parents of vulnerable children. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heartbreak-becomes-burnout-for-teachers-when-work-is-turbulent-111148">Heartbreak becomes burnout for teachers when work is turbulent</a>
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<p>Teachers also need to strategically reduce their expectations for all students and identify a few specific areas they want students to focus on, while ensuring that expectations are clear on both sides.</p>
<p>It’s also possible to plan tasks to allow students to work at their own pace, on their own initiative or according to their areas of interest, for example by offering several choices of activities.</p>
<p>By their nature, crises are unpredictable. Moreover, there is no master plan for teaching at a certain grade level. Teachers organize their year in their own way. Only teachers can translate government guidelines into concrete learning measures.</p>
<h2>Reducing social inequalities</h2>
<p>Inequalities among students must be identified and addressed, both in terms of basic needs, such as food and security, and educational needs. Again, the involvement of teachers is essential to ensure that social inequalities are reduced.</p>
<p><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/inee-assets/resources/Education-emergencies-rigorous-review-2015-10.pdf">Research in the field of education in emergencies</a> suggests that almost all students, and even more so vulnerable students, experience a drop in school performance or a delay in learning when they are out of school for long periods of time. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers follow up with their students and identify the specific needs of more vulnerable students to maintain appropriate learning.</p>
<p>Since students may suffer from the lack of social interaction provided by school, it is desirable to provide opportunities for them to connect with their colleagues and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2019.05.001">their teacher</a> by forming virtual discussion groups or offering interactive learning platforms.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568218779130">School is also an important means of protection for many young people</a>. Many need the free or low-cost meals provided in school to ensure adequate or healthy nutrition. School closures can therefore <a href="http://www.frankfield.co.uk/upload/docs/Hungry%20Holidays.pdf">have a direct impact on the food security of students</a>. </p>
<p>Some youth may also be at greater risk of family violence, as the normal school safety net no longer holds during confinement. That may result in a significant <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/575689/maltraitance-baisse-des-signalements-a-la-dpj">decrease in the number of reports to youth protection services</a>. Teachers need to maintain the special relationship they have with their students to ensure their safety.</p>
<h2>Providing varied resources</h2>
<p>Digital resources can be an aid to learning, but also a barrier. Not all families <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/26/nearly-one-in-five-teens-cant-always-finish-their-homework-because-of-the-digital-divide/">necessarily have access to the same technological tools</a> (internet, computer, television, telephone). They also don’t have the same level of knowledge and skills in the use of technology. This can lead to further inequalities among students.</p>
<p>It’s therefore necessary to ensure that all students have access to sufficient resources to maintain their learning. The idea isn’t to set aside all digital learning platforms, but there is a need for <a href="https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/school-interrupted-4-options-distance-education-continue-teaching-during-covid-19">various solutions</a> that are stable and less vulnerable to breakdowns and technical difficulties. These might include mailings, talking on the phone and educational radio or TV.</p>
<p>Teacher support is absolutely necessary to make these aims a reality. Government initiatives to maintain student learning cannot be effective without the use of an invaluable educational resource: the expertise of teachers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivier Arvisais has received funding from of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Charland has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Fonds de recherche Société Culture du Québec (FRQSC) and the World Bank. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marion Deslandes Martineau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Government initiatives to support student learning during and after the pandemic can't be effective without an invaluable educational resource: teachers' expertise and care.Olivier Arvisais, Professeur, Département de didactique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Marion Deslandes Martineau, Researcher, UNESCO Chair in Curriculum Development, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Patrick Charland, Professeur titulaire / Full professor, Département de didactique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1359342020-04-17T01:20:35Z2020-04-17T01:20:35Z'I have never felt so frightened': Australia's coronavirus schools messaging must address teacher concerns<p>Parents have heard confusing messages from federal and state governments around sending children to school. As students in Victoria started term two on Wednesday, the state government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-16/coronavirus-victoria-schools-term-2-update-covid-19-cases/12151790">told parents</a> to keep children at home if they can. </p>
<p>In some cases there have been reports of <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/not-all-parents-on-good-terms-with-remote-schooling-directive-20200415-p54k3m.html">children being told they have to study at home</a> even though parents want to send them to school as they find it hard to work otherwise.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-15/scott-morrison-asks-teachers-to-keep-schools-open-in-coronavirus/12149056">in a Facebook video</a> this week Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government wanted schools to open up for all students in three to four weeks. </p>
<p>And in a later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2020/apr/16/australia-coronavirus-live-updates-nsw-victoria-qld-national-cabinet-schools-latest-news-update">press conference</a> he maintained expert advice has consistently been that schools are a safe space for children.</p>
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<p>[…] teachers are more at risk in the staff room than they are in the classroom when it comes to how the health advice plays out and the impact of this virus on children as opposed to teachers.</p>
<p>That means that we need to have proper arrangements in place for teachers and other staff in schools […] to protect their work environment, but […] that doesn’t lead to the same rules applying for students because they have a different level of risk.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Morrison may be communicating the correct information, his message keeps being rejected by many Australian parents and teachers. This is because of mishandled communication that conveyed confusing and contradictory information, leaving teachers feeling <a href="https://news.nswtf.org.au/blog/media-release/2020/03/media-release-coronavirus-advice-conflicting-contradictory-and-impossible">unconsulted, scared and outraged</a>.</p>
<h2>Schools are safe, or are they?</h2>
<p>There is good <a href="https://theconversation.com/other-countries-are-shutting-schools-why-does-the-australian-government-say-its-safe-to-keep-them-open-134538">evidence for keeping schools open</a>, including a recent <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2352-4642%2820%2930095-X">rapid review of several studies on the topic</a>, that indicated closing schools contributes very little to reducing the spread of the disease. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/other-countries-are-shutting-schools-why-does-the-australian-government-say-its-safe-to-keep-them-open-134538">Other countries are shutting schools – why does the Australian government say it's safe to keep them open?</a>
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<p>And yet school closures have been among the most contentious and emotive issues in Australia’s COVID-19 strategies. This has resulted from significant failures in risk communication from the government, including many inconsistencies in messages about transmission risks.</p>
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<p>For example, when the <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/update-coronavirus-measures">Prime Minister made a statement</a> banning indoor gatherings greater than 100 people (including staff), he did not even mention schools except to say later that they would remain open. </p>
<p>This is despite the fact schools involve gatherings of greater than 100 people. And the design of many make <a href="https://news.nswtf.org.au/blog/media-release/2020/03/media-release-coronavirus-advice-conflicting-contradictory-and-impossible">implementing recommended social distancing measures impossible</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-australia-is-not-putting-teachers-in-the-coronavirus-firing-line-their-risk-is-very-low-134021">No, Australia is not putting teachers in the coronavirus firing line. Their risk is very low</a>
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<p>Morrison’s statements also expressed concern about kids infecting grandparents, but not about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-25/teachers-unions-meeting-scott-morrison-coronavirus-covid-19/12087600">kids infecting older teachers</a>, some of whom are also grandparents. This caused outrage among many teachers. </p>
<p>President of the NSW Teacher’s Federation Angelo Gavrielatos who reportedly sought a response to such contradictions <a href="https://twitter.com/AGavrielatos/status/1242617720111157249">tweeted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The response from the Commonwealth Deputy Chief Medical Officer was “Sorry. I can’t reconcile the contradictions”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These inconsistencies left parents and teachers – especially those who face significant health issues themselves or in their immediate family – feeling both terrified and unvalued. Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/from_teachers">Stories From Teachers</a>, contain heartfelt expressions of teachers’ fear. One <a href="https://twitter.com/from_teachers/status/1245970548166758400">said</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have never felt so frightened, disregarded and psychologically mangled in my whole entire life.</p>
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<p>Any government plans to return students to school will require careful communication to be acceptable to many teachers and parents.</p>
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<h2>How governments should respond</h2>
<p>People show <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1015/ML101590283.pdf">decreased cognitive processing</a> in high concern situations. This means we should expect many teachers will experience heightened perceptions of risk in their workplace. The best response is to <a href="http://www.psandman.com/articles/who-srac.htm">tolerate any early over-reactions</a>.</p>
<p>Effective communication requires emotional intelligence as well as <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/304607/remember-needs-followers-during-covid.aspx">compassion</a> and empathy (practising non-judgment and avoiding <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/partnering-in-mental-health/201408/bren-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy-0">sympathy</a>). </p>
<p>Handbooks on risk communication, such as the <a href="https://www.who.int/risk-communication/guidance/download/en/">WHO Guideline</a>, emphasise <a href="https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/519F9392797E2DDCCA257D47001B9948/%24File/w-AHMPPI-2019.PDF">communication is a two-way street</a>. This means government and school leaders need to focus as much on what teachers and parents can or need to hear, as on what information they want to convey.</p>
<p>The basis for effective pandemic communication is <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/resources/index.asp">trust</a>. Trust is fundamental to <a href="http://origin.who.int/risk-communication/training/Module-B2.pdf">achieving a coherent public response</a> in an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963662512460953">uncertain</a> and <a href="https://www.edelman.com/research/covid-19-brand-trust-report">unfolding situation</a>. Without it, messages may be ignored or outright rejected. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-matter-of-trust-coronavirus-shows-again-why-we-value-expertise-when-it-comes-to-our-health-134779">A matter of trust: coronavirus shows again why we value expertise when it comes to our health</a>
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<p>To rebuild trust, communication will need to begin with listening to the concerns of parents and teachers. All discussions about schools, such as the release of any new modelling, need to <a href="http://www.psandman.com/media/RespondingtoCommunityOutrage.pdf">explicitly acknowledge</a> the implications for these groups.</p>
<p>Showing respect for teachers and parents requires authorities to trust <em>them</em> by sharing information early, and being transparent and open about deliberation and decision making. Being explicit and honest about uncertainty is particularly important. </p>
<p>If the government doesn’t know the answer to questions such as “how many school-based transmissions have occurred in other countries?”, that needs to be stated clearly.</p>
<h2>It’s getting better but we need action</h2>
<p>In the prime minister’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-15/scott-morrison-asks-teachers-to-keep-schools-open-in-coronavirus/12149056">video message</a>, he thanked teachers, saying what they do each day “matters amazingly”. Showing value for teachers was a good start.</p>
<p>But his words will prove insincere if teachers don’t see them backed up with actions in the actual environments where they work. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.phrp.com.au/issues/february-2017-volume-27-issue-1-2/communicating-about-risk-strategies-for-situations-where-public-concern-is-high-but-the-risk-is-low/">Actions</a> can communicate more strongly than words. Teachers will only feel their concerns have been heard if they see actions that mitigate and monitor risk. </p>
<p>Actions that can be considered include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://www.aeufederal.org.au/news-media/news/2020/national-cabinet-must-provide-expanded-covid-19-testing-education-employees">extensive additional testing</a> for teachers and students</p></li>
<li><p>partial return to school to reduce crowding</p></li>
<li><p>giving staff extra sick leave without requiring medical certificates so they can remain at home if symptomatic</p></li>
<li><p>making it easier for teachers to work from home if they have <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/pages/covid-19-virus.html">demonstrated health needs</a>. </p></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/the-psychology-of-risk-perception">Perceptions of risk</a> decrease as people gain an increased <a href="http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&amp;pid=S0104-12902010000400002">sense of control</a>. So school leadership can support staff to take actions that give them a greater sense of safety. These include staggering bell times or spending five minutes of lesson time with students cleaning desks and chairs. </p>
<p>Actions that show value for staff might include additional professional development days where teachers decide on their individual best use of the time.</p>
<p>Communicating value for teachers will be the key to successful communication around schools in the weeks to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135934/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Hooker ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d&#39;une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n&#39;a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son poste universitaire.</span></em></p>People show decreased cognitive processing in high concern situations. Effective communication needs to respectfully address concerns, and build trust, otherwise information may be rejected.Claire Hooker, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Health and Medical Humanities, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1355692020-04-07T08:45:20Z2020-04-07T08:45:20ZCoronavirus and school exams: despite plan for grading pupils, there may be trouble ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325678/original/file-20200406-74206-16rp5pm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=8%2C0%2C5694%2C3805&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-checking-student-homework-assignment-report-1216241752">NuPenDekDee/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two weeks after the A-level and GCSE exams were cancelled, English assessment authority OFQUAL has decided how grades will be decided for these qualifications. They will be awarded by teachers in the first instance, and these recommendations will then be <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/how-gcses-as-a-levels-will-be-awarded-in-summer-2020">moderated by exam boards</a>.</p>
<p>The fact that this announcement was delayed twice suggests that the prime minister was not aware of the problems raised by the exam cancellation when he announced it. This demonstrates the chasm of understanding between those who work in it and those who govern it. </p>
<p>The prime minister closed England’s schools in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-coronavirus-18-march-2020">press conference</a> on March 18. This was accompanied by the almost casual announcement that exams would be cancelled for summer 2020. With no indication given of how awards would be determined, students with their futures dependent on the outcomes of these exams were cut adrift. Kevin Courtney, leader of the <a href="https://neu.org.uk/?source_campaign=%7Bbrand%7D&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMI67T9m8zT6AIVQUPTCh3zsQ8QEAAYASAAEgJ2X_D_BwE">largest teaching union</a>, acknowledged on that night’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL54LgOlqlw&amp;feature=emb_title">Channel 4 News</a> that his organisation had only just been consulted by the education secretary about the closures.</p>
<h2>Latest of many battles</h2>
<p>The award of exam grades has long been a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203826/Michael-Gove-New-rigorous-exams-abolish-GCSEs.html">contentious issue</a>. Successive governments have changed their format and grading system several times. Restricting exam boards to only overseeing this process unleashes a trial of strength between a number of actors in the field. Each of these is vulnerable to, or has its own, strong vested interests.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325675/original/file-20200406-74206-c0ina3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325675/original/file-20200406-74206-c0ina3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325675/original/file-20200406-74206-c0ina3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325675/original/file-20200406-74206-c0ina3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=450&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325675/original/file-20200406-74206-c0ina3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325675/original/file-20200406-74206-c0ina3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325675/original/file-20200406-74206-c0ina3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=566&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This year, A-levels and GCSEs will not be decided by exams.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/empty-exam-hall-chair-desk-paper-744395434">fairuz othman/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Teachers know the exam candidates best, of course. But they may feel strong pressure to raise the assessment grades from understandably anxious students, sharp-elbowed parents, and in some cases their own employers. In this competitive market, schools use exam results to recruit future students and to hold teachers accountable. This is one of the reasons the government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/11/michael-gove-gcse-reforms">became sceptical</a> of examinable coursework marked by teachers and mostly ended it in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40946785">recent reforms</a>.</p>
<p>Exam boards are pulled in opposing directions. They are effectively businesses in competition with each other, and want to avoid a reputation for severity in assessing students for fear of losing their customers – schools. </p>
<p>On the other hand, they work in harness with government agencies. The government will seek to stop grades being exaggerated – but will also want to avoid a scandal <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/jan/09/schools.uk">like that of 2002</a>, when A-level pass marks were pushed up to stop an increase in A grades. In moderating the 2020 results, exam boards use schools’ prior performance as a guide. This will punish students who attend schools with a record of poor performance, and reinforce their disadvantage.</p>
<p>The universities and colleges to which A-level and GCSE candidates hope to go on have varying interests depending on their place in the market. Less popular institutions will worry that inflated grades will cause them to lose students, as candidates turn to universities which they had previously thought were out of their league. </p>
<p>Popular institutions may fear that their practice of making more offers than they have places will backfire. If higher grades on average are awarded, all of the students they offered places to will arrive, when some would normally not reach the threshold. The government has already <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52010858">admonished some universities</a> for rushing out unconditional offers to applicants in the lockdown. </p>
<h2>Competing interests</h2>
<p>The announcement about the 2020 process raises at least as many questions as it answers – how grades should be established, how their integrity will be guaranteed, and what the impact will be on the national education system.</p>
<p>Everyone in the education system is determined to be principled and reasonable. However, this approach has risks associated with it – this year more than ever. Everyone is aware of the possibility of “Wild West” behaviour by other actors and will be tempted to factor it into their own calculations: for example, schools changing their grades in anticipation of over-grading by other schools or sweeping downgrading by the exam boards. </p>
<p>Exam results are the currency of the education marketplace. It is telling that the government did not appear to grasp the impact of destabilising this currency. OFQUAL has still not established any appeals procedure for the exam grades to be awarded, though it recognises that one will be needed. Cancelling exams is the equivalent in an economic market of closing the central bank and inviting businesses to set interest rates and print money. The results will at the very least be unpredictable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Cole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Exams are the currency of the education marketplace.Matthew Cole, Research Fellow, Department of History, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1340162020-03-18T01:30:37Z2020-03-18T01:30:37ZHere's a bright idea should schools have to close: enlist childcare workers as nannies for health workers<p>As social distancing measures to restrain coronavirus become <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/travel-warning-raised-indoor-mass-gatherings-over-100-people-prohibited-20200318-p54b85.html">increasingly aggressive</a>, one of the big points of contention is whether (and for how long) schools and childcare centres should be closed. </p>
<p>The prime minister says his best advice at the moment is that it is not necessary<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/travel-warning-raised-indoor-mass-gatherings-over-100-people-prohibited-20200318-p54b85.html"> at this stage</a> (although many private schools are choosing to close).</p>
<p>One concern about closing schools is the potential of closures to devastate the health system as health care workers leave their posts to care for their children.</p>
<p>The disruption that would occur from the closure of schools around this country, make no mistake, would be severe. The prime minister is right to be concerned about the impacts on the health workforce. Our calculations, based on the Australian census, suggest 28% of Australia’s more than 700,000 doctors, nurses and aged care workers have young dependent children. </p>
<p>Losing even a fraction of them from the workforce at the peak of the crisis will cost lives.</p>
<h2>We don’t want to lose health care workers</h2>
<p>Many have partners who can care for children during the peak of the health crisis.</p>
<p>But some do not: there are about 45,000 households with children aged 14 or younger either headed by a sole parent who is a medical professional, or by two parents both of whom are medical professionals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=413&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=413&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=413&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=520&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=520&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321180/original/file-20200318-60932-opsln7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=520&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frontline health staff include medical practitioners, nurses, health and welfare support workers, personal carers. We have used the number of frontline health staff aged under 45 with children as a proxy for the number with young children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: ABS Census 2016</span></span>
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<p>Many who might normally rely on their parents for support will want to avoid doing so, given older people are among those most at risk of serious COVID-19 infection.</p>
<p>So here’s a proposal to significantly reduce the human cost of school and childcare centre closures should they become necessary.</p>
<h2>Employing child carers as nannies ought to work</h2>
<p>If Australia’s childcare centres are closed, more than 125,000 trained childcare workers, all with appropriate vetting, will not be working. The casual staff, in particular, will see their incomes dry up. </p>
<p>Our proposal is to redeploy childcare workers as nannies for the health care professionals who do not have alternative childcare support. </p>
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Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-schools-are-closing-because-of-coronavirus-but-should-they-be-133432">Australian schools are closing because of coronavirus, but should they be?</a>
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<p>This would keep the childcare workers employed and, most importantly, enable our health care professionals to keep working. </p>
<p>We would be trading capacity of un-utilised childcare professionals for capacity of overextended medical professionals.</p>
<p>Across Australia there is one childcare worker for every 1.6 frontline health care workers with younger dependants, although this ratio varies substantially between states, and no doubt between different local areas.</p>
<p>But the bottom line is almost all health care workers who need help should be able to get it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=447&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=447&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=447&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=562&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=562&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321181/original/file-20200318-60875-o6zzk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=562&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: ABS Census 2016</span></span>
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<p>A downside is that health care workers are more likely than many other workers to be exposed to the virus, so their children might be at greater risk of infection. </p>
<p>This would increase the risk of infection for enlisted nannies. For that reason, all childcare professionals at higher risk of serious infection should be excluded from the scheme. </p>
<p>No one would be compelled to participate, but for many childcare workers the promise of a stable income and the capacity to contribute to Australia’s health response is likely to be attractive.</p>
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Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-closing-schools-and-childcare-centres-would-mean-for-parents-and-casual-staff-133768">COVID-19: what closing schools and childcare centres would mean for parents and casual staff</a>
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<p>Childcare workers who have their own children to care for should be able to take them along with them. In almost all cases, the number of children under the care of a single worker would still be far below the normal childcare centre caring ratios.</p>
<p>Coordination and hiring of these frontline nannies could be arranged through the childcare centres themselves – all of which have staff well versed in rostering.</p>
<p>This plan is unusual, but we are living in unusual times. </p>
<p>Calling up our childcare workers to support frontline health workers would enable Australia to close schools and childcare centres should that be needed, and still give our health care system the best chance of treating those most in need.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute&#39;s activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities as disclosed on its website.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Blane no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>Closing schools and childcare might take 30% of Australia's health care workers offline. Here's a way to keep them working.Danielle Wood, Program Director, Budget Policy and Institutional Reform, Grattan InstituteNathan Blane, Analyst, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1283522020-02-13T13:30:25Z2020-02-13T13:30:25ZLearning through adventure: the many skills that can be taught outside the classroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311853/original/file-20200124-81341-12qmlr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Learning outside the classroom through adventurous activities is known to have <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203858134/chapters/10.4324%2F9780203858134-17">significant educational benefits</a>. It helps children develop technical, intellectual and social skills by overcoming challenges and sharing decisions. </p>
<p>Such activities might include various <a href="http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/sasm/2015/02/10/trainee-pe-teachers-run-orienteering-festival/">forms of orienteering</a>, using a climbing wall or different forms of cycling – as well as team building, trust games and problem-solving tasks.</p>
<p>From a psychological perspective, they help pupils develop a “can do” attitude that can be applied to all aspects of school life. They instil a sense of determination which gives them the confidence to face up to challenges, express and deal with emotions, and a desire to succeed. </p>
<p>Adventurous activities also help pupils to overcome fear, anxiety and physical stress. Quite often this means putting children outside of their comfort zones and exposing them to scenarios they are not used to. These may be situations they perceive as too difficult or potentially dangerous, but are all part of teaching them about risks and safety. </p>
<p>It is a physical education teachers’ role to plan and put into action situations that can provide maximum mental development but with minimum risk. In the UK, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-physical-education-programmes-of-study">National Curriculum</a> for physical education requires teachers to provide opportunities for taking part in outdoor and adventurous pursuits. </p>
<p>The idea is to present pupils with intellectual and physical challenges which encourage them to work in a team, building trust and problem solving skills. </p>
<p>But there are <a href="http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/sasm/2016/12/02/the-really-useful-pe-book/">academic benefits too</a>. This is a chance to promote cross-curricular teaching whereby pupils can improve their own learning and performance, improve their literacy, numeracy and communication skills – with applications for other core curriculum subjects such as mathematics, geography and science. </p>
<p>Alternatively, a focus on personal and social development using basic skills related to outdoor activities can be achieved through a number of trust games, team-building exercises and problem-solving activities which promote feelings of cooperation. </p>
<p>They also enhance pupils’ ability to work together and develop a sense of responsibility. Many of these are particularly suited to the beginning of the academic year for pupils making the transition from junior schools into secondary education, when confidence building is especially valuable.</p>
<p>Physical education teachers also need to be open to new kinds of exercise that children may enjoy at home, which can easily be transferred to increasing the appeal of PE at school – particularly for those children who seem to lack confidence.</p>
<h2>Balancing skills</h2>
<p>Young people are participating in very different physical activities outside of school compared to the types of sport taught as part of the formal PE curriculum, such as cricket or rugby. For example, many enjoy cycling in their free time, so providing the chance to incorporate this could make the subject more appealing to a broader section of pupils. </p>
<p>At the University of Brighton, trainee teachers have been introduced to this relatively new concept of “<a href="http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/sasm/2016/02/12/pe-on-wheels/">physical education on wheels</a>”. The idea is to embrace the popularity of mountain biking, BMX biking, skateboarding, and scooting, which can all be viewed as adventurous forms of exercise. Yet few schools seem have recognised this as a means to increase pupils’ activity levels and tend to ignore the potential of introducing these activities into their PE lessons. </p>
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<p>It’s also worth stressing that adventurous activities are ideal for involving all pupils (including those with additional learning needs). Minimal adaptations are required, and young people can work cooperatively at a level appropriate to their needs. </p>
<p>Yet many children are unable to enjoy this kind of experience – often because of understandable concerns from their schools about cost, expertise, facilities and time. But an adventurous approach to PE should not be restricted to schools with access to neighbouring forests or mountain ranges. </p>
<p>Adventurous activities can all be taught on a school site and introduced in a safe and enjoyable way even in schools that have limited outdoor space where lessons can be adapted for playgrounds and school halls.</p>
<p>In this way, teachers can ensure that everyone does the same activity with minimal adaptations to the environment, and without the need for specialist equipment. All pupils can contribute to a shared group outcome – and benefit from an adventurous approach to their physical education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary Stidder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Improving social, physical and psychological abilities.Gary Stidder, Principal Lecturer, School of Sport and Service Management, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1208102020-01-30T11:49:08Z2020-01-30T11:49:08ZTeachers less likely to take phones away from white, privileged children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312843/original/file-20200130-41507-1pn5nzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=32%2C32%2C5431%2C3604&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-teen-students-sneakily-looking-smart-585788537">Shutterstock/DGLimages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many children today, before they even start school they are already digitally literate. They know how to use a phone, make videos and take photographs. This is to be welcomed given <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/current-and-future-demand-for-digital-skills-in-the-workplace">government research</a> has found that 82% of all advertised openings require some level of digital skills.</p>
<p>But our <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/695766">new research</a> with schools in the US and France shows that teachers perceive the benefits and harms of tech use for students differently depending on the student’s race, social class and disability status. </p>
<p>We found that teachers are more likely to see technology use by marginalised students as “messing around” and unhelpful to learning, but when it comes to their more privileged peers, teachers are more likely to see the benefits. </p>
<h2>Tech at school</h2>
<p>Our research looked at the day-to-day uses of technology in two countries and 12 schools. We investigated tech use in three US middle schools with different student demographics. We also collaborated with a French education service provider for blind children and nine of the primary, middle and high schools it works with in France.</p>
<p>In the US, in a predominantly white, private school, we found that educational technologies were not only welcomed, but nearly all uses of technology by students (including video games) were treated by the school as potentially useful for education. Social media, often vilified elsewhere, was seen as just another part of a college application: used to showcase dedication in areas such as sports or photography.</p>
<p>But in other middle schools – including one with mostly working-class students of Latin American origin or descent and another that had mostly middle-class, Asian American students – social media was perceived as irrelevant and, at times, even threatening to learning. Teachers at these schools felt students had enough to do learning the basics of programming and office software.</p>
<h2>Excluding disabled students</h2>
<p>France recently became the first country to impose a so-called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/world/europe/france-smartphones-schools.html">“ban” on smartphones at school</a>. The new law enables schools <a href="https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/actualites/A12828">to write their own smartphone policies</a>. This includes allowing smartphones for learning purposes or in certain areas of schools and banning them in others. </p>
<p>In France, we found that legitimate phone use in the classroom was in many instances now also forbidden. And visually impaired middle- and high-school students, who increasingly rely on their smartphones to be able to participate in school life and learning activities, found themselves unable to do so. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312025/original/file-20200127-81369-yf2926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312025/original/file-20200127-81369-yf2926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312025/original/file-20200127-81369-yf2926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312025/original/file-20200127-81369-yf2926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312025/original/file-20200127-81369-yf2926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312025/original/file-20200127-81369-yf2926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312025/original/file-20200127-81369-yf2926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Tech can help students to connect what they are learning to real life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/smiling-school-kids-using-digital-tablet-574078363">wavebreakmedia</a></span>
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<p>This adds to existing forms of discrimination, such as the widespread practice to sit these students apart from their peers, because of concerns that using a computer may <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254">impair the learning of nearby students</a>. </p>
<p>And in this sense, our findings show that if strategies to discipline smartphone use in schools are not carefully considered and implemented, they may simply reproduce inequality or even create new divides. This is why it’s important this phenomenon is looked at more broadly, in a larger number of schools and countries.</p>
<h2>Widening tech access</h2>
<p>Libraries and museums, often show how tech can be <a href="https://youmedia.org">playfully and responsibly embedded in young people’s lives</a>. Indeed, Catherine Cormier, programme manager at The Mix at <a href="https://sfpl.org/">San Francisco Public Library</a> – a free space and digital media lab for teens to “<a href="https://themixatsfpl.org/">connect, explore, learn and hang out</a>” – explains how equal access to technological resources for all teens can help to bridge the social divide in tech:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Teens have little confidence that they can do something adults will find worthwhile with technologies. We try to meet them where they are – often [with] video games. Mostly I try to establish boundaries [or structures rather than] barriers – as rigid barriers always exclude kids who need us. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is important because more and more jobs require applicants to have <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/digitalization-and-the-american-workforce/">digital skills</a>. Indeed, a <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/news/nesta-identifies-the-digital-skills-required-for-a-future-proof-job/">study by the charity Nesta</a> found that not all digital skills will be equally valuable in the future and the most beneficial ones will involve creativity – such as animation skills, multimedia production and design in engineering.</p>
<p>So instead of forbidding technology use, all young people should be supported in their explorations. And this begins with showing interest and providing space for students’ current digital practices, be they video games, social media, video calls or vlogging.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emeline Brulé has received funding from the French National Research Agency (for the Accessimap Project). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Rafalow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Privileged children get to use phones in school while others face bans for 'messing around''.Emeline Brulé, Lecturer in Product Design, University of SussexMatt Rafalow, Sociologist and Visiting Scholar, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1291562020-01-07T13:58:04Z2020-01-07T13:58:04ZWhy media education in schools needs to be about much more than 'fake news'<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308619/original/file-20200106-123395-goukla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=16%2C24%2C5475%2C3639&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/education-school-student-computer-network-technology-397853056">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2019 general election is already being remembered as the one where <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-look-closely-at-britains-decision-to-elect-a-man-so-renowned-for-his-untrustworthiness-128733">misinformation went mainstream</a>. It was, of course, already on the political agenda after the 2016 referendum and US election, with growing numbers of <a href="https://crestresearch.ac.uk/resources/russian-influence-uk-terrorist-attacks/">academics</a> and <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/179109.htm#_idTextAnchor063">parliament</a> sounding the alarm over foreign actors using so-called “<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebooks-fake-news-plan-is-doomed-to-failure-social-media-must-do-more-to-counter-disinformation-75953">fake news</a>” to disrupt the democratic processes.</p>
<p>But what was seen over the election period was not the work of fringe actors. Instead, major political parties appeared to adopt tactics previously associated with shady players operating at the edges of the information ecosystem. No major party was entirely innocent, as evidenced by <a href="https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/uk-general-election-2019-round-up-voting-day/">First Draft’s Cross Check project</a>. But the Conservatives’ campaign repeatedly adopted controversial tactics. Tactics such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/20/twitter-accuses-tories-of-misleading-public-in-factcheck-row">having its press office pose as a fact-checking service</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50595930">editing BBC news footage</a> to imply that prominent journalists supported the party’s line on Brexit.</p>
<p>Voters, <a href="https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/thousands-of-misleading-conservative-ads-side-step-scrutiny-thanks-to-facebook-policy/">the evidence suggests</a>, were caught in a storm of <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-did-a-report-really-find-0-of-labour-ads-misleading">misleading Facebook posts</a>, memes and tweaked videos. This was a covert propaganda campaign and its impact has yet to be established.</p>
<p><a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2019-06/DNR_2019_FINAL_1.pdf">Research from the Reuters Institute for News</a> has shown for some time that growing numbers of people in the UK access their news online – 74% in 2018. Over a third (39%) get news via social media.</p>
<p>But recent reports have revealed that the situation is even more complex, with work by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/05/uncovered-reality-of-how-smartphones-turned-election-news-into-chaos">the Guardian</a> and <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/174088/bbc-news-review-deck.pdf">Ofcom</a> showing people over-reporting news consumption, skimming over headlines and consuming so-called news via user-generated memes, celebrity influencer posts and politicians on social media.</p>
<h2>Information crisis</h2>
<p>There have been <a href="https://reformpoliticaladvertising.org/">calls for urgent reform to the laws around political advertising</a> to take account of this confusing digital landscape during elections. This is something that politicians must take seriously in the months that follow.</p>
<p>But there is also space for a bottom-up response to this information crisis. The future electorate must be taught how to navigate the modern news landscape. Young people also need to be helped to understand why – in this age of misinformation – public interest news is more important than ever.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-spot-fake-news-an-experts-guide-for-young-people-88887">How to spot fake news – an expert's guide for young people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Far from being “digital natives”, evidence from the US points to a generation of young people who have no idea where their information online comes from, or why they are reading it. A <a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-students-have-trouble-judging-credibility-information-online">report by the Stanford History Education Group</a> evaluated the online reasoning skills of 3,446 high school students age 12 to 17 between June 2018 and May 2019. They described the results they found as “troubling”.</p>
<p>There is no evidence to suggest young people in the UK are any better. In fact, the 2018 <a href="https://literacytrust.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/all-party-parliamentary-group-literacy/fakenews/">Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills</a> found that only 2% of children have the critical literacy skills needed to identify a credible news story.</p>
<h2>News literacy needed</h2>
<p>A growing number of educators, policy makers and third-sector groups are calling for news and critical digital literacy to be taught in schools, with over <a href="https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/fake-news-and-critical-literacy-final-report/">half of teachers reporting</a> that the current national curriculum does not equip pupils with the literacy skills they need to tackle fake news.</p>
<p>In its <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdf">final report on Fake News</a>, published in February 2019, the UK parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee reiterated its calls for digital literacy to be the fourth pillar of education alongside reading, writing and maths. But thus far these calls have fallen on deaf ears.</p>
<p>In its <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/2184/2184.pdf">response to the committee’s report</a> the government insisted there was no need, arguing students already study the core components of digital literacy in history, English and IT. There have <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1630/163002.htm">also been suggestions </a> that governmental action is not needed because others are active in this space. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308621/original/file-20200106-123373-yxmmja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308621/original/file-20200106-123373-yxmmja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308621/original/file-20200106-123373-yxmmja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308621/original/file-20200106-123373-yxmmja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308621/original/file-20200106-123373-yxmmja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308621/original/file-20200106-123373-yxmmja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308621/original/file-20200106-123373-yxmmja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s not just children either, half of all people now get their news from social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/minsk-belarus-november-6-2016-boy-516190801">AlesiaKan/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are indeed news organisations, charities and others running news literacy workshops in schools, covering topics such as how articles are put together, and why news matters. The government-commissioned <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/779882/021919_DCMS_Cairncross_Review_.pdf">Cairncross review into the future of journalism</a> highlighted some of these and suggested that more collaboration between them could be encouraged as part of a governmental media literacy strategy. </p>
<p>These initiatives, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/newswise">NewsWise</a>, a Google-funded partnership between the Guardian Foundation and the National Literacy Trust aimed at primary school children, do valuable work. But many are limited in scope and scale, reliant on external funding and in most cases not subject to any independent evaluation or benchmarking.</p>
<p>And the numbers do not add up. There are close to nine million schoolchildren in England according to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/812539/Schools_Pupils_and_their_Characteristics_2019_Main_Text.pdf">Department for Education figures</a> from 2018-2019. But such initiatives are reaching no more than 10,000 children – and that is a generous estimate. This is insufficient to deal with the scale of the challenge.</p>
<h2>Check your sources</h2>
<p>After he found himself at the centre of a “fake news” row about a genuine picture his newspaper published of a boy lying on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary during the final week of the election campaign, <a href="https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/health/do-not-believe-a-stranger-on-social-media-who-disappears-into-the-night-an-open-letter-from-our-editor-to-you-1-10147697">the editor of the Yorkshire Post urged readers</a> not to trust a social media poster who “disappears into the night”. Instead, he urged them to appreciate the difference between that and verified, independent and accountable journalism.</p>
<p>But this is easier said than done. News is no longer spoon-fed by a handful of gatekeeper media outlets. This is not a bad thing, but to enable tomorrow’s votes to adopt a healthy news diet, schools must equip them with the skills to do this. And the government needs to act to make this happen sooner rather than later.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frances Yeoman receives funding from the British Academy/ Leverhulme small research grants fund for her research work on news literacy education. She also holds a bursary from the Association of Journalism Educators. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Morris receives funding from the British Academy/ Leverhulme small research grants fund for her research work on news literacy education.
She is a member of the Green Party of England and Wales.</span></em></p>Only 2% of children have the skills needed to identify a credible news story.Frances Yeoman, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Liverpool John Moores UniversityKate Morris, Lecturer in Journalism, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1239182019-12-26T21:39:52Z2019-12-26T21:39:52Z4 ways to get your kids off the couch these summer holidays<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306259/original/file-20191211-95125-1qc2bm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=1%2C10%2C997%2C655&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Come school holidays, your school-aged kids are more likely to spend longer on their screens than they do in term time. Here&#39;s how to get them outside and active, with a bit of planning.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/back-view-image-cute-little-blond-1477614533">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sun’s shining and there’s a trampoline in the backyard. Yet your kids want to spend their summer holidays lying on the couch playing computer games all day.</p>
<p>So what can you do to help your school-aged kids stay active and healthy this summer?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/more-than-one-in-four-aussie-kids-are-overweight-or-obese-were-failing-them-and-we-need-a-plan-114005">More than one in four Aussie kids are overweight or obese: we're failing them, and we need a plan</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Kids put on weight over the holidays</h2>
<p>In 2016, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27804271">US study</a> found that all the increase in fatness of school-aged children occurred over the summer holidays. During term time, kids get leaner and leaner, only to put it all back on, and then some, during the holidays. </p>
<p>Their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17548760">fitness also declines</a> during holiday time. To make matters worse, changes are greater in kids from <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831213502516?journalCode=aera">poorer, less educated backgrounds</a>, and the gap between rich and poor widens over multiple summer holidays. The work of the school is undone at home. </p>
<p>What’s going on, and what can parents do about it?</p>
<h2>Holidays are different</h2>
<p>Kids spend their time <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-6765-6">differently on holidays</a>, as we showed in a study published earlier this year. </p>
<p>On holidays, Australian kids get 58 minutes a day more screen time than during term time, including spending 16 minutes a day more playing video games. They get 16 minutes less sport and vigorous exercise each day.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/explainer-why-does-the-teenage-brain-need-more-sleep-29557">Explainer: why does the teenage brain need more sleep?
</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>They also get 40 minutes more sleep, staying up about 40 minutes later, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9158439">sleeping in</a> 80 minutes more.</p>
<p>All this adds up: their overall energy expenditure is more than 5% lower. Over six weeks of school holidays, that amounts to an extra half kilogram of fat in a typical 11-year old, and that’s without counting changes in diet.</p>
<p>Kids eat differently on holidays, too. </p>
<p>On school days, kids can only eat during recess and lunch. Their options are limited by school-based healthy eating initiatives such as “fruit time”, healthy canteen menus, and the curriculum about healthy lunchboxes. </p>
<p>All that goes out the window on holidays. Kids fall victim to the gravitational pull of the big white box in the kitchen. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306268/original/file-20191211-95111-1kcb5nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the holidays, kids fall victim to the gravitational pull of the fridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-looking-open-fridge-family-letters-1110081056">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On weekends and school holidays, kids have greater choice of how much, what and when they eat. Most (knowingly) choose <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/23/2/144/712577">less healthy options</a>. </p>
<p>Later bedtimes mean more <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26264005">screen time</a> and more <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23295498">snacking</a>. Longer lie-ins often mean kids skip breakfast.</p>
<h2>The importance of structure</h2>
<p><a href="https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-017-0555-2">US researchers</a> coined the idea of “structured days”. School days, they argue, are characterised by consistency and structure, which regulate how kids use their time, and when and what they eat. </p>
<p>On school days, for example, two-thirds of kids get up within an hour of each other (roughly between 6:30 and 7:30 am); on non-school days, it is over three hours (between 6:45 and 10:05 am).</p>
<p>Their review of 190 studies compared children’s sleep, physical activity, sedentary behaviours and diet on school days and weekends. They found that in 80% of studies, weekends were associated with unfavourable activity and dietary patterns.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=361&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=361&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=361&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=454&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=454&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306270/original/file-20191211-95120-1jrp4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=454&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unstructured time during school holidays can lead to longer lie-ins and missed breakfasts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-caucasian-boy-sleeping-bed-742624951">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During school term, the unhealthy impacts of unstructured weekend days are diluted. In contrast, the school holidays, and particularly the summer holidays, involve a long string of unstructured days and unfavourable activity and dietary behaviours. This leads to a decline in fitness and accelerated <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24367922">weight gain</a>.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1375/acri.39.3.398?journalCode=anja">filled-time perspective</a>” describes the sensible idea that when children’s time is filled with favourable activities, the time cannot be filled with unfavourable ones. </p>
<p>This suggests it is helpful to fill children’s time with favourable activities, like physical activity and excursions, to reduce the time available for unfavourable activities, such as snacking and screen time. </p>
<p>So what can parents do to keep kids healthy and active on school holidays? Here are four ways, with a proven track record.</p>
<h2>1. Get kids outside</h2>
<p>Studies consistently show time spent outside is strongly associated with both <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335519301779">physical and mental health</a>. That effect is likely due to kids being more physically active outdoors.</p>
<h2>2. Try summer camps</h2>
<p>Summer camps are popular in Europe and North America, and <a href="https://travel.nine.com.au/destinations/aussie-summer-camps-for-kids/14d1b415-dab5-4b3c-9932-f613696ac0df">also run in Australia</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonie_de_vacances">An estimated 1.3 million</a> French school children go off to their “colonies de vacances” each summer. In the US, over 14 million kids attend <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28350830">summer camps</a>. </p>
<p>Children who spend more time in summer camp are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20334661">more active</a> than those who spend more time at home over the summer holiday. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28214251">80% of boys and 73% of girls</a> who attended a summer day camp met the daily physical activity recommendations of 60 minutes per day — about four times as many as those reaching that target during the year.</p>
<h2>3. Activity before screen time</h2>
<p>Only allow screen time when the kids have been physically active, even if that only means doing household chores. On holidays, kids spend <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-6765-6">35 minutes more</a> each day doing chores, so this may be your chance to get your kids to pitch in. </p>
<h2>4. Plan the day</h2>
<p>Organise time for physical activity with your child. Have a game of beach cricket or a mini-Olympics in the backyard. Take the dog for a walk. Organise excursions to the museum, or even shopping, where they get to walk around. Have regular times for meals and relaxation.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="http://theconversation.com/why-suburban-parks-offer-an-antidote-to-helicopter-parenting-115155">Why suburban parks offer an antidote to helicopter parenting</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Olds receives funding from the NHMRC and the ARC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Watson receives funding from the NHMRC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Maher receives funding from the NHMRC.</span></em></p>The average Australian school kid spends more time watching TV or gaming and less time being active over their summer holidays. Could more chores be the answer?Tim Olds, Professor of Health Sciences, University of South AustraliaAmanda Watson, Research Associate, University of South AustraliaCarol Maher, Associate Professor, NHMRC Career Development Fellow, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1279292019-12-16T13:37:32Z2019-12-16T13:37:32ZWhy Kenya is failing to integrate technology into secondary schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304910/original/file-20191203-67017-20ni4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many Kenyan students have had limited access to computers</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stars Foundation/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya’s education ministry has <a href="http://vision2030.go.ke">proposed that</a> information and communication technology (ICT) – such as computers, laptops, tablets and cameras – be used to help teach certain subjects and improve how students learn. The technology can, for instance, stimulate creativity, help children understand complex topics and give them tools to learn more independently. </p>
<p>In 2011 the ministry created an integration team to coordinate and harmonise all initiatives. The team worked with a Flemish and Belgian non-profit organisation – <a href="https://www.vvob.org/nl">VVOB (education for development)</a> – dedicated to improving the quality of education in developing countries. </p>
<p>Part of the plan included a professional development programme which was carried out in four pilot schools and lasted two years. It was designed to help teachers learn how to integrate technology into the curriculum. Because teachers are in control of the classroom settings, it was crucial that they were part of this collaborative experience.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1475939X.2015.1091786?journalCode=rtpe20">evaluated</a> the programme. Our main focus was on how many teachers continued to use technology in their lessons after the programme ended in the four government-funded secondary schools. None of these schools had previous experience with ICT. </p>
<p>We found that teachers faced a wide range of challenges when it came to
integrating technology into their classrooms. These included a lack of electricity, infrastructure and connectivity. Moreover, the training needed was complex and the resources required to deliver it were scarce. </p>
<p>At the start of the intervention, teachers didn’t know how to integrate technology in their classes. They also didn’t have enough time to develop new lessons and had too many pupils to teach. </p>
<p>Our findings support the view that integrating technology into schools does’t automatically follow a simple placement of hardware and software. It involves understanding the dynamic relationship between technology, how it’s used in the classroom and the content of the curriculum. </p>
<p>Our research also suggests that the professional development of teachers is a long term project. It needs constant reiterations of learning about emerging technologies and how to use them. This must be in balance with the national ICT initiative but also, more importantly, be sensitive to the different school cultures and communities. </p>
<h2>Integration is key</h2>
<p>In the schools we evaluated, technology training sessions were developed under a professional development programme. These were designed to encourage teachers to identify challenging areas in their teaching and then brainstorm about how technology could offer an advantage in the classroom. For instance, how technology could help them overcome the challenge of scarce or outdated textbooks. Trainers in the workshop would then train the teachers in teacher design teams on the skills they would need to accomplish the task. </p>
<p>We conducted teacher questionnaires and focus group discussions with a total of 64 teachers. The aim was to see how many teachers used technology in their classrooms two years after the programme had ended. Based on the results it appeared that some teachers were just beginning to use technology to present information. But most were using it to support their educational practice outside the classroom. For example, they used technology to prepare lessons or to email with colleagues. </p>
<p>This was due to a number of challenges, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Schools kept hardware, like computers, in labs. This physical separation of technology and the actual classroom meant that it was harder to integrate technology in learning activities. But labs were used because of poor security, power breakdowns and a lack of space in the classrooms.</p></li>
<li><p>At the beginning of the project, the schools didn’t have clear goals on how to support technology integration after the professional development programme. This could be because a large number of people – from the principal to integration teams – were involved in decision-making processes. Also, participants only felt more clear about the role of ICT in education towards the end of the programme.</p></li>
<li><p>The teachers also needed additional support from administrative school leaders, like the headteachers. These leaders would have the authority to demand the installation of electricity and connectivity in each class. But in one school, the teachers said that they didn’t feel they had support from the leadership, or good direction. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>We also found positive outcomes. </p>
<p>For example, there was collaboration at the school as well as the regional level. In some schools, the teachers worked with others in different schools and passed on ideas. In turn, this contributed to the promotion of professionalism. </p>
<p>We concluded that the gains of the programme could only be sustained if schools and teachers felt a sense of ownership and were part of a process of evaluation so that they could understand what they’d learnt, and what goals they wanted to set. This stresses the importance of professional development as a permanent process, aimed at extending and updating the professional knowledge of teachers in the context of their work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Tondeur is affiliated with Vrije Universiteit Brussel. </span></em></p>Integrating technology into schools involves understanding the dynamic relationship between technology, how it's used in the classroom and the content of the curriculum.Jo Tondeur, Assistant Professor, Vrije Universiteit BrusselLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1286772019-12-16T10:23:49Z2019-12-16T10:23:49ZConservative parliamentary majority: what it could mean for schools<p>How will schools fare under a new Conservative government that’s in a strong position to implement its manifesto commitments?</p>
<p>Although much of the Conservative manifesto signalled a business as usual approach to education policy, <a href="https://assets-global.website-files.com/5da42e2cae7ebd3f8bde353c/5dda924905da587992a064ba_Conservative%25202019%2520Manifesto.pdf">there was the big promise</a> of £14 billion extra funding for schools – though this was a reaffirmation of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-boosts-schools-with-14-billion-package">a pledge made by the prime minister, Boris Johnson, in August</a>.</p>
<p>The funding will be delivered over the next three years: £2.6 billion in 2020-21, increasing to £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23. According to <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/performance-tracker-2019/schools">some commentators</a>, this should bring real-terms funding per pupil back to 2010 levels – when funding was at its highest. </p>
<p>On the steps of Number 10, the morning after the election, Johnson once again promised “more money for schools”. But with <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-funding-promised-increases-are-actually-real-term-cuts-and-poorer-schools-are-hit-hardest-123618">increasing costs and rising pupil numbers</a> this <a href="https://theconversation.com/headteachers-march-the-school-funding-protests-explained-104012">may not equate to a real-terms increase</a> – as has been the case before.</p>
<h2>More money, fewer teachers?</h2>
<p>Alongside the funding boost also comes a promise of higher expenditure, with starting salaries for teachers of £30,000 a year. Again here, the manifesto restates <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/30000-starting-salaries-proposed-for-teachers">an earlier promise</a>, and what a promise – for some newly qualified teachers this would be a 20% boost on their current salary. </p>
<p>There’s no indication of whether there would be comparable or knock-on uplifts for more experienced teachers, though Gavin Williamson, secretary of state for education, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/832425/SoS_to_STRB_Sept_2019.pdf">suggested that</a> “flatter pay progression” structures in schools will be encouraged.</p>
<p>But school leaders will be agonising over the question of whether the funding injection, estimated at <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/election/2019/article/conservative-manifesto-an-initial-reaction-from-ifs-researchers">7.5% by the The Institute for Fiscal Studies</a>, will be sufficient to cover the additional costs of new teachers. If not, a promise that ought to attract more into the profession may actually lead to <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-the-real-reason-teachers-are-quitting-its-not-just-the-money-55468">fewer teachers in schools</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306842/original/file-20191213-85391-13hriq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306842/original/file-20191213-85391-13hriq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306842/original/file-20191213-85391-13hriq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306842/original/file-20191213-85391-13hriq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306842/original/file-20191213-85391-13hriq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306842/original/file-20191213-85391-13hriq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306842/original/file-20191213-85391-13hriq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More money for new teachers, but schools could still financially struggle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-sitting-table-her-classroom-primary-634019516?src=f522c7db-8bfc-4c2d-bdeb-f0221d702275-1-1&amp;studio=1">DGLimages/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The government is also promising an additional £780 million package to support children with special educational needs. This money, distributed through local authorities, will go some way towards mitigating the £1.2 billion shortfall projected by a recent <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmeduc/969/969.pdf">official Education Committee report</a>, but wider change will need to happen for this to be effective. Indeed, a <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201919/cmselect/cmeduc/20/20.pdf">further report</a> from the same committee highlighted how additional funding will make little difference to the lives of young people unless there is a “systemic cultural shift” in the way special needs education is managed in schools.</p>
<h2>Reforming the systems</h2>
<p>It’s not just funding that has been promised by the Conservatives, but further reform to school systems too. More places in special schools, for those with the most complex needs, alongside an expansion of alternative provision, for children who are at risk of, or have suffered, permanent exclusion. These may be needed if the Conservatives’ plan to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/27/leaked-documents-reveal-tories-dramatic-plans-for-schools">crackdown on behaviour</a> and back [headteachers] to use exclusions more widely is to be implemented.</p>
<p>There are also commitments to seeing more Free Schools opened, along with “innovative” schools with specialisms – a possible hark back to the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4618601">specialist schools</a> movement instigated under former prime minister John Major, and enthusiastically maintained by New Labour.</p>
<p>It’s also very likely that a richer curriculum will be developed in schools. This may be in response to the new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-inspection-framework">Ofsted inspection framework</a>, which looks for an ambitious and comprehensive curriculum. But it will also be a result of new funding for a new premium to provide money for art, music and sport, as well as more PE in primary schools. For many pupils and parents this will be welcome, after a decade of narrowing curriculum driven by too much emphasis on performance data, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/752721/HMCI_PAC_letter_311018.pdf">according to the chief inspector of schools</a>.</p>
<p>But this doesn’t mean the Ofsted inspection regime has gone soft. <a href="https://vote.conservatives.com/news/only-the-conservatives-will-protect-standards-in-our-schools">The government has promised</a> to revisit no-notice inspections – where teams simply turn up at schools unannounced. It will also provide extra funding for Ofsted to allow for longer inspections in bigger schools. </p>
<p>This, along with revisiting outstanding schools, may seem fairer, but it won’t take away much of the stress caused by Ofsted – which is identified <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-well-being-at-work-in-schools-and-further-education-providers/summary-and-recommendations-teacher-well-being-research-report">as in issue in its own research</a> – nor will it give the support that struggling schools need. While the manifesto promises to intervene in schools with “entrenched underperformance” it’s not clear what form that intervention would take.</p>
<h2>More choice for parents</h2>
<p>The neoliberal commitment to market forces remains at the centre of ongoing reforms, with the promise that parents will be able to choose the school that best suits their children. <a href="https://theconversation.com/abolishing-private-schools-is-admirable-but-wont-make-choosing-a-state-one-any-easier-for-parents-124111">This concept of “choice” </a> has led to secondary schools becoming larger and fewer in number – with government policy producing not more schools but an increase in different types of schools. For parents, this had made choices at once more limited, but also more complicated – and it looks like this is set to continue.</p>
<p>In the end, the story is of more of the same, but with more power to the Department for Education. The government looks set to continue reforms in the same direction as before. But over time, these may become more rapid and perhaps also more extreme.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Rolph does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reforms are set to continue in the same direction as before.Chris Rolph, Director, Nottingham Institute of Education, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1209642019-12-11T13:18:02Z2019-12-11T13:18:02Z5 new ways for schools to work with families<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304474/original/file-20191129-95264-1e5lwmf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new way is needed for schools to engage with parents.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Text messages, email alerts, open houses, fundraising appeals, robocalls – parents know the drill. They are inundated with requests from children’s schools.</p>
<p>These missives aren’t really asking for engagement. Rather they can be viewed as ways for educators to tell parents what they should do to support their students or the school. These experiences can <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732x12459718">inadvertently communicate that schools alone know what’s best for children</a> – and parents should listen and follow directions, a dynamic especially present in schools serving working-class communities of color.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://ais.washington.edu/people/megan-bang">scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/education/michelle-renee-valladares">parents</a>, my colleagues and <a href="https://education.uw.edu/people/faculty/aishi">I</a> research the intersection of families, schools and racial inequities. We have learned new ways for schools and families to work together to help realize children’s potential. And the answer isn’t fundraising, checking the latest school app or listening to robo-calls.</p>
<p>Research tells us that families play a <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21868/parenting-matters-supporting-parents-of-children-ages-0-8">critically important role</a> in the educational success of their children. We also know from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bicultural-Parent-Engagement-Advocacy-Empowerment/dp/0807752649">research that schools</a> typically expect parents and families of color to conform to the values and behaviors of white, middle-class parents.</p>
<p>The hitch is that families of color don’t always participate in the ways schools expect. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2011.01148.x">Histories of distrust and conflict</a> often exist between families of color and schools.</p>
<p>We know, for example, that there are <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-2015-16.html">well-documented racial disparities in discipline referrals</a>, in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X07308253?casa_token=QBNbqzfriG8AAAAA%3AaBBtEm42hm90DyubnZz-jDGxFr6-_qfAC4utlSiTIK9MT_wqkpETLbSo7lFsHIASs4EYRiqmD9zK">access to high-quality</a> teachers and instruction, and in resources and <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/cover-inequality-school">robust learning opportunities</a>. But when parents raise questions about racial bias and inequities, their questioning, our research <a href="https://faculty.washington.edu/rsoder/EDUC310/310lareauhorvatmomentssocialinclusion.pdf">and other work</a> has shown, it is rarely well received by educators and school leaders.</p>
<p>Rather than acknowledging these well-documented tensions and revising expectations, educators can interpret behaviors that deviate from their expectations as evidence that there’s something wrong or lacking in families of color. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3651334?read-now=1&amp;seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">A study</a> by Dr. John Diamond and his colleagues found that when teachers decide parents don’t care or are interfering with their professional authority, they tend to feel less responsible for those students’ learning. These assumptions rely on age-old narratives that <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/06/29/blaming-parents-of-color-for-their-own.html?cmp=RSS-FEED">implicitly blame families of color</a> – and have negative consequences, especially for Native American, black, Latinx, Pacific Islander and some Asian students.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305685/original/file-20191206-90609-250e4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305685/original/file-20191206-90609-250e4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305685/original/file-20191206-90609-250e4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305685/original/file-20191206-90609-250e4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305685/original/file-20191206-90609-250e4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305685/original/file-20191206-90609-250e4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305685/original/file-20191206-90609-250e4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A parent-teacher conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flickr.com/photos/innovationschool/8048216332/">flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Catalyzed by a charge from the 2014 White House Symposium on Transformative Family Engagement, we have been working on a different set of approaches to co-design more “<a href="https://www.tcpress.com/just-schools-9780807763193">just schools</a>” with families. Based on the research of <a href="http://familydesigncollab.org/">our national network of scholars and family leaders, Family Leadership Design Collaborative</a>, schools and policymakers can approach families differently. They can:</p>
<p><strong>1. Start with families’ and communities’ priorities, not the school’s agenda.</strong></p>
<p>Families and communities need to be the architects of their own futures. That means starting with family stories, experiences, knowledge and cultural practices. That might mean recognizing negative histories with schools before jumping to solutions. For example, in Chicago’s urban Indigenous community, families discussed the trauma of boarding schools and the erasure of Indigenous communities. They also shared their ancestral knowledge and stories of raising children to envision what education would be required to raise “good elders.” Parents in another district shared experiences of positive relationships with teachers but also their frustrations dealing with bullying and racism at the school. </p>
<p>After sharing these experiences, they developed <a href="https://education.uw.edu/sites/default/files/programs/epsc/ParentCurriculum-FINAL-Print.pdf">a curriculum for other parents</a> to help them build relationships with each other to address issues of bullying and to support positive racial and cultural identities for their children. </p>
<p><strong>2. Recognize and treat families of color as experts on their own children.</strong></p>
<p>When schools help families build relationships with each other and recognize their expertise, they can become powerful leaders in school change. In Los Angeles, black and Latinx parent leaders with the organizing group <a href="http://cadre-la.org/">CADRE</a> changed the discipline policies in the district. And yet, based on our research, parents of color still felt blamed and judged in everyday conversations with teachers and principals about discipline – and there had been little change in the pipeline from school to prison, especially for black boys. Now those parent leaders are collaborating with faculty at UCLA to help new teachers reshape everyday conversations to be less about blame and more about enabling parents to share their expertise on their own children. </p>
<p><strong>3. Give families and communities the resources, time and space to envision solutions, not just share their pain.</strong></p>
<p>Listening sessions can be powerful but limiting. Families share their traumas with educators, but school leaders ultimately decide what to do with what they heard. <a href="https://nepc.colorado.edu/sites/default/files/publications/PM%20Family%20Leadership_0.pdf">Our research shows</a> how families can be part of designing solutions if they are provided the time, space and resources to do so. For example, in Salt Lake City, a school decision-making body supposedly included parents, but families of color experienced meetings as alienating and exclusionary. We found rather than airing those negative experiences and expecting policymakers to do something, parents, teachers, principals, researchers and district leaders imagined what a productive council would be like and started to enact those changes. They got the legislature to let them use funds for outreach to more diverse families. They created a comic to share with parents whose first language wasn’t English. They are developing a training for educators on the councils to learn how to engage differently. And they envisioned spaces prior to formal council meetings for parents to come together to discuss what their schools need most.</p>
<p><strong>4. Help families and educators learn to facilitate meetings across racial, cultural and other differences.</strong></p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/highered/racial-diversity/state-racial-diversity-workforce.pdf">U.S. Department of Education</a>, most teachers and leaders in the U.S. are white, and a growing majority of students and their families are from communities of color. Collaborating across lines of race, culture and roles requires skillful facilitation. Real tensions emerge between people and ideas in equity work. School and parent leaders need to be able to intervene in tense interactions. That might be as simple as asking educators to slow down, listen more and use fewer acronyms. But imbalances of power often require skilled facilitation, like what to do when one loud voice dominates the conversation or when white parents inadvertently disregard parents of color. </p>
<p>Even parents of color can reinforce these narratives. For instance, one group of immigrant parents in a diversifying suburban district voiced a belief that other immigrant families are focused on meeting their immediate needs and don’t care about their children’s education. The facilitator at this session could have gone with this simplistic explanation that blamed parents for disparate opportunities – a stereotype that empirical research has proven wrong. Instead, the facilitator leaned into the tension and shared her own challenges as a working parent who was often away from her child. Her vulnerability challenged the discourse of blame, and parents began to strategize about how they could better support each other collectively. Such facilitation skills must be learned, and schools and systems need to invest in developing those capacities. </p>
<p><strong>5. Ensure families have real influence on important educational decisions</strong></p>
<p>School and district leaders in our study came to see the routine decisions they made in their jobs as critical opportunities for family and community influence. Educational leaders redesigned key decisions that impacted students and families, especially those marginalized by typical processes. </p>
<p>For instance, one principal supervisor in an urban district redesigned the hiring process for a new principal with students, families and teachers in the school. He enlisted a colleague who helped families discuss the broken trust they felt with the district due to prior decisions, then they collectively designed their own questions for principal candidates. They held separate student, family and teacher interview panels, then proposed their top choice (which was unanimous, in this case). The district hired that principal, and several families wrote letters to the school board about how the process helped repair their broken trust with the district. </p>
<p>These and other actions laid out in our <a href="https://nepc.colorado.edu/sites/default/files/publications/PM%20Family%20Leadership_0.pdf">full policy memo</a> can recast families and communities as essential collaborators in fostering equitable schools and educational systems. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&amp;utm_medium=inline-link&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter-text&amp;utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120964/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann M. Ishimaru receives funding from W.K. Kellogg Foundation for the research on which this is based</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Bang receives funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for research on family engagement.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Valladares receives funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for the research on which this is based.</span></em></p>School officials can do a better job engaging families of color. Here are five ways for them to start.Ann M. Ishimaru, Associate Professor, University of WashingtonMegan Bang, Professor of Learning Sciences and Psychology, Northwestern UniversityMichelle Valladares, Associate Director of the National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1278342019-12-08T07:13:18Z2019-12-08T07:13:18ZDistorted narratives about Islamic schools deflect ugly truths about Nigerian society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305184/original/file-20191204-70122-1ms438h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Islamic school in Nigeria</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-50090698/life-in-a-nigerian-torture-school-i-was-treated-like-an-animal">reports</a> about the mistreatment of children in Nigeria included news reports of “torture houses” at Islamic schools in a number of states. The catchy <a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/torture-sexual-abuse-prompt-calls-reform-nigerias-islamic-schools">news headlines</a> came close to invoking mass hysteria by linking events at the schools to kidnapping, child begging, Boko Haram and Nigeria’s reported 10 million “out of school” children.</p>
<p>In this environment, every Nigerian becomes an expert and has a strong opinion. But the debate doesn’t include the very people involved in the system who struggle to make a claim for alternative narratives.</p>
<p>I have conducted research into this system of Qur'anic education for the past six years. I have looked specifically at the mainstream misrepresentation and distortion of Almajiranci, a classical system of Qur'anic schooling which is common in northern Nigeria and other parts of Muslim West Africa. Young boys are sent away from home to live with and study the Qur'an with a teacher, also known as a Malam. “Single-story” narratives about this simplify an otherwise complex and nuanced system of education and socialisation. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/ecas2019/paper/49117">research</a>, I used the stories of the men who had gone through the system as a counter narrative. I especially aimed to amplify their voices to challenge their harsh representations by Nigerians like myself – the “Western-schooled elite”. People with the power to do all the representing. </p>
<p>The conclusion I have reached is that if Nigerians only adhere to the mainstream discourses of Almajiranci, bent on seeing Qur’anic schools only through a lens of dysfunctionality, they risk never really understanding what this situation tells them about their society. They also risk misunderstanding how society fails its most vulnerable – again and again. Nigerians end up only presenting it as a problem of Almajiranci – a system which Nigerians have already convinced themselves is not fit for purpose, and which they have learnt to encounter (and to judge) only through superior (Western schooled) gazes. </p>
<p>It is important, therefore, not to take the issue of these “torture houses” as only peculiar to Almajiri Qur’anic schools. </p>
<h2>My research</h2>
<p>In my research, I broke the debates about Almajiranci into three main categories: as a backward and retrograde system of knowledge; as producing dysfunctional adults; and as abusive and posing a children’s rights concern.</p>
<p>To many Nigerians, Almajiranci as an education system is past its sell-by date. It is considered to have no utilitarian value, and no longer fit for the production of the ideal and modern Nigerian citizen. Through this lens, the way that Almajirai learn is not considered as learning. It is no longer deemed as either valued or valid knowledge. After all, Nigerians cannot see how Almajirai can end up as doctors, engineers, lawyers and politicians. </p>
<p>This is in contrast to attitudes towards Western schooling, which has been inherited through the colonial project and which continues to be viewed as being modern and valuable. </p>
<p>Another effect of this way of thinking is a difference in understanding what Almajiranci really means to its many practitioners. Nowhere is this difference more visible than in the way that Qur’anic schools – and the men who function in them – are conceptualised. Many Western schooled Nigerians hold both simultaneously noble and degrading stereotypes of the men that this system produces. </p>
<p>But, in fact, the treatment of former Almajirai, men who have been through the Almajiranci system of education and who identify as Malamai (Qur'anic school teachers) within their local communities, is often quite removed from their treatment and representation in the mainstream media and debates. </p>
<h2>Being a Malam</h2>
<p><a href="https://journals.openedition.org/apad/4092">According to Nasir Mohammed Baba</a>, an eminent scholar of Almajiranci, being a Malam can confer leadership responsibilities in the religious and social life of host communities. This includes being expected to undertake traditional roles of healing and spiritual protection. These services are highly sought after and are often delivered discreetly, or even in secrecy. </p>
<p>Services which I call <a href="https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/ecas2019/paper/49117">Acts of Malamta</a> can include sanctification of a new home or car, and prayers for success, charisma and the dead. They can also include treatment of addiction, mental health conditions and behavioural problems.</p>
<p>It is this role that’s very important in providing context to the so-called “torture houses”. Nigeria is a society that struggles with several structural and systemic inadequacies and failures. These include a struggling health care system, as well as a raging <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43982302">drug addiction problem</a>. </p>
<p>This is happening in a society without an appropriate understanding and acceptance of mental health issues, and in which mental health facilities are inadequate. </p>
<p>Juxtapose this with a high level of societal shame, and a need to cover up for family honour, and you have a perfect storm. </p>
<p>I believe strongly that it is these conditions that allow torture houses like the ones found in Daura, Kaduna, Ilorin and Ibadan to function. It also speaks to a pressing need, but for which there are very few alternatives. This means many are forced to revert to what is available – even when it is horrific and clearly problematic.</p>
<h2>Word of caution</h2>
<p>The abuse found in these so-called “Qur'anic schools” is replicated in several other contexts in Nigeria – in homes with people hired as domestic help being whipped for minor misdemeanours. The abuse is also replicated in other religious establishments where people are taken for deliverance, in Nigeria’s prison system where everything goes, and in government boarding schools which can sometimes be brutal. This abuse is seen even in the few government-owned rehabilitation facilities where inmates are shackled. </p>
<p>It would be a mighty shame – and a missed opportunity – if Nigerians didn’t use the opportunity of the horror stories to take a hard look at themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Hadiza Kere Abdulrahman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is important not to take the issue of ‘torture houses’ as only peculiar to Qur’anic schools.Dr Hadiza Kere Abdulrahman, Lecturer in Inclusive Education, Bishop Grosseteste UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1274202019-11-21T14:02:50Z2019-11-21T14:02:50ZHow universal childhood trauma screenings could backfire<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302698/original/file-20191120-524-g0be5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">California is implementing universal screenings for childhood trauma.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-updating-check-list-kids-while-574072954?src=7625a08b-426d-44cb-ada6-bfd0197e766a-2-39">wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is well established that child maltreatment and other childhood adversities are associated with <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/22/Suppl_2/A105.1.abstract">poor outcomes</a> later on in life. </p>
<p>As a result, many <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/california-s-first-surgeon-general-screen-every-student-childhood-trauma-n1064286">child advocates</a> have embraced the idea that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-nation-should-screen-all-students-for-trauma-like-california-does-126486">we should screen all children</a> for adverse childhood experiences.</p>
<p>California is putting $45 million into such a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/california-s-first-surgeon-general-screen-every-student-childhood-trauma-n1064286">plan</a>. The notion is that if doctors and teachers can discover just who has suffered these harms, steps can be taken to forestall possible negative outcomes like mental illness, substance abuse and chronic diseases.</p>
<p>In principal, universal screening can be a tremendous tool to prevent harmful repercussions. But many experts on childhood adversities have concluded it is premature and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/pch/article/24/4/272/5444228">problematic</a> to start screening all children for traumatic experiences.</p>
<p>As a scholar who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UfbBFlYAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao">studies child maltreatment</a>, I am in this camp. A misguided screening regime can result in wasted time, effort and resources, as well as disappointment and maybe even <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31682717">harm.</a> In my view, screenings for traumatic experiences in childhood should not be implemented on a universal level until more is known about how to do it right.</p>
<h2>Screenings gone awry</h2>
<p>Many ambitious screening projects in public health have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/jan/03/patients-truth-health-screening-harm-good">turned out poorly</a>. Doctors used to screen everyone with chest X-rays to prevent lung cancer. But after many years, <a href="https://www.nyp.org/cancer/cancerprevention/cancer-prevention-articles/020-annual-chest-x-ray-fails-to-lower-lung-cancer-death-rate">studies</a> showed this expensive testing wasn’t actually saving anybody’s life, and it may have been causing harm in the form of unnecessary surgeries and increased anxiety.</p>
<p>Studies have also raised serious doubts about the benefits of universal screening for <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/184340">domestic violence</a> and even <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/opinion/10Ablin.html?scp=1&amp;sq=the%20great%20prostate%20mistake&amp;st=cse">prostate cancer</a>.</p>
<h2>Knowing what to look for</h2>
<p>Screening <a href="http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/CV350-InPress.pdf">works best</a> when you have a clear risk to screen for, an accurate test for finding it, and, most important, proven remedies to counteract it. Screening for cavities to prevent more serious dental disease works well.</p>
<p>But we don’t have the tools or knowledge yet to know whether universal childhood adversity screening will actually work. For example, we don’t know exactly what to screen for: Is it worth screening for something that happened 10 years ago?</p>
<p>Another problem is what to do when we find something. We have treatments for effects of abuse, like depression, but not for the experience itself. Not everyone who was abused will necessarily have problems or need treatment. Moreover, just sending a child to a counselor doesn’t mean the counselor has something effective to offer.</p>
<h2>A question of resources</h2>
<p>Another big problem is that the nation’s community treatment resources are already tremendously <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_crisis_of_youth_mental_health">overtaxed</a>, especially for the most effective treatments. It doesn’t work to identify an adversity and then put someone on an extended waiting list. And the extra referrals will only make it harder for children with more critical needs to get help. Screening isn’t a good idea until the resources are in place.</p>
<p>Then there’s the problem of child maltreatment reports. Everywhere in the U.S. and Canada, when professionals learn about child maltreatment, they are <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/manda.pdf">legally obliged</a> to report it to local authorities, who usually then initiate a child protection investigation. These agencies are also <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190416093735.htm">overtaxed</a>. Will these reporting systems be overwhelmed with a lot of old cases whose investigation provides no benefit? Could these investigations, in fact, actually <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/excerpt-from-automating-inequality/">cause harm</a>?</p>
<h2>Screening mistakes</h2>
<p>A final challenge with screenings of all sorts is what are called the “false positives.” Any screening for cancer or child trauma ends up flagging a lot of people who look like they have the condition that public health authorities are trying to help but don’t really have it. It is often in dealing with these false positives that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601385/#:%7E:targetText=False%2Dpositive%20findings%20on%20screening,a%20diagnosis%20of%20breast%20cancer.">harm is done</a> and resources wasted. We haven’t begun to figure this out with adversity screening.</p>
<p>The bottom line is this: A universal screening system requires a lot of testing and planning to work out the bugs and rigorous clinical evaluation to make sure that it provides more benefit than harm. We are just at the start of that process. It will be 5-10 years, in my opinion, before we know how to go about this in the right way. Let’s not ruin a good idea by setting up an expensive and time-consuming universal system before we know how to make it work.</p>
<p>In the meantime, teachers, doctors, counselors, and parents should <a href="https://www.nctsn.org/resources/all-nctsn-resources">learn about</a> how adversities, like child abuse, impact children’s health. They should know where the sources of help are. And by all means, they should ask about it if they have a suspicion or a concern. We can be informed, vigilant, proactive and responsive while we try to find out whether universal screening would be a good addition to our toolkit.</p>
<p><em>Tracie Afifi, of the University of Manitoba, Harriet Macmillan, of McMaster University, and Sheri Madigan and Nicole Racine, both of the University of Calgary, contributed to this article</em>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&amp;utm_medium=inline-link&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter-text&amp;utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Finkelhor receives funding from US Department of Justice, Thorn, Monique Burr Foundation and Facebook.</span></em></p>Universal screenings for childhood trauma, like the ones being implemented for California students, may cause more harm than good, a scholar argues.David Finkelhor, Professor of Sociology, University of New HampshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1264862019-11-18T14:04:16Z2019-11-18T14:04:16ZWhy the nation should screen all students for trauma like California does<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301652/original/file-20191113-77326-97rx6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The effects of childhood trauma can be long-lasting.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/child-psychology-psychiatric-therapy-children-concept-611762108?src=8561abd2-efb1-41ec-85e1-0322bb931bf0-2-0">shutterstock.com/lightspring</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the first person to hold the new role of Surgeon General of California, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is pushing an unprecedented plan to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/california-s-first-surgeon-general-screen-every-student-childhood-trauma-n1064286">implement universal screenings for childhood trauma</a> for children in the state’s Medicaid program.</p>
<p>Childhood trauma is <a href="https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Trauma.aspx">defined</a> by the National Institute of Mental Health as an “emotionally painful or distressful” event that “often results in lasting mental and physical effects.”</p>
<p>Burke Harris’ plan is already more than a dream: In June, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a budget that provides <a href="https://cpehn.org/blog/201901/governor-newsom%E2%80%99s-budget-makes-important-investments-health-equity-and-prevention">roughly $45 million</a> for trauma screenings and another $50 million to cover training for those who will administer the screenings. Burke Harris’ vision of universal screening for trauma in children may be a massive undertaking, but it’s also already under way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301653/original/file-20191113-77363-acbz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301653/original/file-20191113-77363-acbz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301653/original/file-20191113-77363-acbz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301653/original/file-20191113-77363-acbz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301653/original/file-20191113-77363-acbz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301653/original/file-20191113-77363-acbz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301653/original/file-20191113-77363-acbz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first ever Surgeon General of California, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, being sworn in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/">California Governor's Office</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Well-intentioned critics might question the cost of Burke Harris’ project. As a <a href="https://socialwork.vcu.edu/about/our-team/sunny-h-shin-phd.html">social work professor</a> whose <a href="https://rampages.us/innovativewellness/">research</a> has long focused on childhood traumatic experiences and addiction, I believe such a program is needed nationwide.</p>
<p>If all the country’s children could undergo developmentally appropriate screenings for what we in the medical and social work communities call adverse childhood experiences, I suggest, based on my research, millions of tax dollars could be saved every year, <a href="https://rampages.us/innovativewellness/adverse-childhood-experiences-child-maltreatment/">premature deaths and diseases could be prevented</a> and schools would be healthier, happier places for students and teachers. A quiet but urgent public health crisis could finally be seriously addressed. Here’s why:</p>
<h2>1. Untreated childhood trauma can cause permanent biological damage</h2>
<p>Recent <a href="https://acestoohigh.com/2016/09/08/7-ways-childhood-adversity-changes-a-childs-brain/">biological evidence</a> confirms what many child development experts have long suspected: When kids experience certain types of childhood trauma, the impacts are not necessarily temporary. It can fundamentally change their brain development and other aspects of physical development.</p>
<p>One example of this: It appears that for some children who face adverse childhood experiences, the brain and body <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3968319/">changes the way it responds to future stress</a>. Many of the changes affect the prefrontal cortex, which plays a key role in the regulation of emotions. A possible consequence: Some children with unresolved traumas are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213415000551?via%3Dihub">not sufficiently able to understand their own or their peers’ emotions</a>. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this disconnect can lead to various <a href="https://rampages.us/innovativewellness/addictive-behaviors/">behavioral problems in schools</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Early detection can largely resolve the impacts of trauma</h2>
<p>A traumatic experience itself cannot be undone. However, adults often underestimate just how <a href="http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/resilience/according-experts/resilience-after-trauma-early-development">resilient</a> children can be in the face of even the most serious adverse childhood experiences. And when adverse experiences are detected <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14686458">early</a>, trained professionals can help sufferers resolve lingering effects of trauma through therapy before they turn into much bigger behavioral problems.</p>
<p>Efforts, then, should focus on ensuring early detection of traumatic experiences. They should also focus on fostering habits that strengthen children’s resilience. That includes getting enough sleep and exercise, opportunities for mindfulness practice, and the support of a nurturing community.</p>
<h2>3. Screenings can help educators better understand their students</h2>
<p>When teachers better understand what might lie behind violent, stubborn or erratic behavior, it can help them be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740914000267">less punitive</a> and respond in ways that get closer to the root cause. In other words, teachers can spend more time proactively addressing the bigger potential issues rather than simply reacting to what has already happened. For example, if a teacher knows a child has been exposed to domestic violence, the teacher may have the school nurse check regularly whether the child is having any biological reactions. And school social workers and psychologists can talk to the child about whenever the student reacts negatively to something that took place in class.</p>
<h2>What’s next after universal trauma screenings?</h2>
<p>Once we’re screening for trauma across the board, educators and school systems will have no choice but to develop a language and practice around trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed education. This can only be a good thing for our schools, our children, and our society.</p>
<p>I think of trauma screenings as being similar in some ways to an X-ray: Even the most advanced machines cannot heal the bone. In order to heal the fracture, what you need is treatment that often involves resetting the bones and immobilizing it with a cast or splint. We will have to stress: What will we do with these results? How can we help our systems get to the point where they’re more than ready to handle the next step?</p>
<p>Implementing universal trauma screenings is an understandably daunting proposition. It would be highly costly and require intense logistical planning. School systems will also need to anticipate what they’ll do with the results if universal trauma screenings become a reality. The benefits of such screenings, however, far outweigh the logistical and financial costs. In my view, not implementing screenings for childhood trauma should be more worrisome than the challenges associated with the implementation. Too many modern societal problems, such as chronic disease and addictive behaviors, originate from ignorance around childhood trauma. But with a trauma screening plan like the one in California, schools could better work toward massively beneficial solutions.</p>
<p><em>This article has been corrected to show that the childhood trauma screenings in California are not set to take place in the state’s schools.</em></p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&amp;utm_medium=inline-link&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter-text&amp;utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend.</a> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sunny Shin receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ABMRF/The Foundation for Alcohol Research, Virginia Department of Social Services, and Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth. </span></em></p>California's surgeon general has implemented schoolwide screenings for trauma. A social work professor explains why the rest of the nation should do the same.Sunny Shin, Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1236182019-10-21T09:48:30Z2019-10-21T09:48:30ZSchool funding: promised increases are actually real-term cuts – and poorer schools are hit hardest<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297852/original/file-20191021-56220-mvlprp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C0%2C5078%2C3382&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School funding doesn&#39;t add up. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-primary-school-pupils-their-desks-432876733?src=6H6LL4YKkZA5tMKE2tWFeQ-1-68">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent changes to school funding in England mean that, although there may seem to be more money for education, in general schools will be worse off in 2021 than they have been over the last few years. In the second half of 2019, the government announced <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/schools-to-learn-funding-allocations-following-14-billion-pledge">a £14 billion increase</a> in funding for schools in England. This is over three years: £2.6 billion in 2020-21, increasing to £4.8 billion in 2021-22 and £7.1 billion in 2022-23. </p>
<p>The National Education Union (NEU) <a href="https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/school-cuts-updated-funding-figures">analysed the figures</a>, and despite the cash injection, found “a strong link between deprivation and the scale of government cuts to school funding”. The NEU suggests that, when inflation is taken into account, over 16,000 schools will have less income in April 2020, compared to 2015. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, school spending per pupil in the UK has fallen by about 8% in real terms. According to the <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/R162-Annual-report-on-education-spending-in-england-schools.pdf">Institute for Fiscal Studies</a>, this is the largest decline since at least the 1970s. For historical reasons to do with how funding used to be calculated, these cuts will hit schools in the most disadvantaged areas hard. </p>
<h2>Feeling the effects</h2>
<p>Children in classrooms – particularly in disadvantaged areas – are already feeling the very real effects of funding cuts. Staff are being made redundant, schools have fewer resources, and some schools are even <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-48770759">considering closing</a> for half a day per week to save money. Recent apparent funding increases are in fact real-term cuts – and teachers and parents are rightly concerned. </p>
<p>In April, <a href="https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/state-education-child-poverty">a survey</a> of 8,600 teachers and other school staff conducted by the National Education Union found that 91% of teachers felt that poverty was a factor in limiting children’s capacity to learn. Three-quarters of those surveyed blamed poverty for children falling asleep during lessons, being unable to concentrate and behaving badly. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297853/original/file-20191021-56198-1rs4bf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297853/original/file-20191021-56198-1rs4bf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297853/original/file-20191021-56198-1rs4bf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297853/original/file-20191021-56198-1rs4bf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297853/original/file-20191021-56198-1rs4bf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297853/original/file-20191021-56198-1rs4bf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297853/original/file-20191021-56198-1rs4bf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tough on teachers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/male-high-school-tutor-standing-by-1195671607?src=6H6LL4YKkZA5tMKE2tWFeQ-1-43">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many teachers in schools face these problems every day, while also having to handle issues that arise as a result of austerity and cutbacks to other services, such as health and social care. As a result, <a href="https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/article-listing/teachers-paying-to-provide-basics-for-pupils.html">nearly half</a> (45%) of teachers surveyed said that they have spent their own money buying basic necessities for pupils in the last year. </p>
<p>Yet current government policy does nothing to level the playing field in terms of structural inequalities: in fact, it reinforces them. </p>
<h2>A complex system</h2>
<p>School funding in England is complicated, partly because there are so many kinds of schools – between 70 and 90, on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2015.1121141">one estimate</a> – and partly because the mechanisms change quite often. It’s also complex because there are so many rules, depending on whether pupils are certain ages, or have special educational needs. </p>
<p>In general, however, people tend to have two key concerns: how much money is going into schools from the government, and whether this money is being distributed fairly. All children in England between the ages of five and 16 are entitled to a free place at a state school. </p>
<p>There were nearly <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/812539/Schools_Pupils_and_their_Characteristics_2019_Main_Text.pdf">9m children in English schools</a> in January 2019: <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmpubacc/1597/1597.pdf">about half</a> of the pupils in state-funded schools in England are in maintained schools, and about half in academies and free schools. </p>
<p>Maintained schools are so called because they are funded and controlled by the local authority. Maintained schools must follow the national curriculum and other rules, for example about teachers’ pay and conditions. </p>
<p>Academies and free schools are state-funded, non-fee-paying schools, which are are independent of local authorities and operate outside of their control. These schools are run by trusts or sponsors such as parents’ groups or businesses. They still get funding from the government, but they can decide how to spend their budget themselves, and they can set their own entrance criteria. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/unleashing-greatness.pdf">2013 report</a> by the Academies Commission stated that it received evidence of some popular schools, including academies, attempting to select and exclude certain pupils; there tends to be a decrease in the proportion of disadvantaged pupils enrolling in academies, and a resultant increase in intakes in maintained schools. </p>
<p>The fact that academies set their own admissions policies “attracted controversy and fuelled concerns that the growth of academies may entrench rather than mitigate social inequalities”, according to the report.</p>
<h2>Fair funding?</h2>
<p>The National Funding Formula (NFF) is the formula that is used to allocate school funding. This is a basic per-pupil funding allocation, and then there are adjustments for things like additional needs. The NFF is used to calculate funding for individual schools, and then the total for an area is calculated and the amount passed on to the local authority.</p>
<p>Councils then set their own formula, in agreement with school forums made up of head teachers, to distribute the cash. The formula must include both a basic local funding unit for each pupil attending the school, and a measure of deprivation. It can also take into consideration some other elements, such as the number of pupils with English as an additional language. </p>
<p>Academy funding comes directly from the Department for Education (DfE); local authorities instruct the DfE how much to pay each academy in their area. This is all quite likely to change, though – and then it is possible that NFF funding will be paid directly to all mainstream schools. </p>
<p>Another important source of funding for schools is the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings">pupil premium</a>, which was introduced by the government in 2011. The amount is allocated based on the number of pupils who are or have been eligible for free school meals, and also those who have parents in the armed forces, and intended to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. </p>
<p>Schools are accountable for how they spend the pupil premium, but they don’t have to spend it just on eligible pupils. So the question remains: why are measures such as pupil premium and the national funding formula failing to level the playing field?</p>
<h2>Rising costs</h2>
<p>In July 2019, the <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmeduc/969/969.pdf">Education Select Committee</a> reported that it was clear that pupil premium was not always directed at disadvantaged children – rather, it is often used to make up shortfalls in school budgets. As the select committee noted, schools should not have to choose between running their core operations and supporting disadvantaged pupils. The fact that this is happening shows that there is simply not enough money in the school funding system. </p>
<p>School costs have increased across a range of areas, including annual pay award and salary raises, inflation, pensions and special educational needs provision. School funding has not kept pace. Jon Andrews, director for school system and performance at the Education Policy Institute think-tank, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c0530b6e-ee9d-11e9-ad1e-4367d8281195">said that</a> the government’s policies on education funding “target money towards schools with less challenging intakes and lower levels of disadvantage – at a time when progress in closing the gap between disadvantage pupils and their peers has stalled”. </p>
<p>Promised increases to funding are likely to be real-term cuts. Schools and children are suffering because of inequitable policies – and this will have far-reaching consequences for the economy and wider society, long into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet Lord is affiliated with the Labour party.</span></em></p>Children in classrooms – particularly in disadvantaged areas – are already feeling the very real effects of funding cuts.Janet Lord, Faculty Head of Education, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1235312019-09-22T20:11:18Z2019-09-22T20:11:18Z10 ways to get the most out of silent reading in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293307/original/file-20190920-22437-4l1ymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=51%2C301%2C5760%2C3526&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children need time and space to enjoy the books they choose to read in schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/read-aloud-to-your-children-to-boost-their-vocabulary-111427">Reading aloud</a> can help young children learn about new words and how to sound them. There’s great value too in providing opportunities for children to enjoy regular silent reading, which is sustained reading of materials they select for pleasure. </p>
<p>But not all schools consistently offer this opportunity for all of their students. We regularly hear from teachers and teacher librarians who are concerned about the state of silent reading in schools.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/read-aloud-to-your-children-to-boost-their-vocabulary-111427">Read aloud to your children to boost their vocabulary</a>
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</em>
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<p>They’re worried students don’t have enough opportunity to enjoy sustained reading in school. This is important, as many children do not read at home.</p>
<p>For some young people, silent reading at school is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/17548845.2013.11912497" title="Should Silent Reading feature in a secondary school English programme? West Australian students’ perspectives on Silent Reading">the only reading</a> for pleasure they experience. </p>
<h2>Silent reading silenced</h2>
<p>Research suggests silent reading opportunities at school are <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=702325343670795;res=IELHSS" title="Silent reading and discussion of self- selected books in the contemporary classroom">often cancelled</a> and may <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/17548845.2013.11912497" title="Should Silent Reading feature in a secondary school English programme? West Australian students’ perspectives on Silent Reading">dwindle</a> as students move through the years of schooling. </p>
<p>Where silent reading opportunities still exist, we’re often told that the way it is being implemented is not reflective of best practice. This can make the experience less useful for students and even unpleasant.</p>
<p>Yet regular reading can improve a student’s <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1053794" title="How Reading Volume Affects Both Reading Fluency and Reading Achievement">reading achievement</a>. Reading books, and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/berj.3498" title="The link between fiction and teenagers’ reading skills: International evidence from the OECD PISA study">fiction books</a> in particular, can improve their reading and literacy skills.</p>
<p>Opportunity matters too, as the amount we read determines the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237109087_What_reading_does_for_the_mind" title="What reading does for the mind">benefits we get from reading</a>. Regular reading can help with other subjects, such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/berj.3180" title="Reading for pleasure and progress in vocabulary and mathematics">maths</a>.</p>
<p>So, what should silent reading look like?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=361&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=361&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=361&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=454&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=454&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293319/original/file-20190920-22408-pnr51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=454&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Silent reading in school should be fun.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here are ten important things we need to do to make the most of silent reading in our schools.</p>
<h2>1. Enjoyment is the focus</h2>
<p>Enjoyment of reading is associated with <a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A5940P" title="Reading Engagement for Tweens and Teens: What Would Make Them Read More?">both reading achievement and regular reading</a>. </p>
<p>If we want young people to choose to read more to experience the benefits of reading, then silent reading needs to be about pleasure and not just <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/17548845.2016.11912584" title="'I don't know if she likes reading': Are teachers perceived to be keen readers, and how is this determined?">testing</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Students choose the books</h2>
<p>Young people should not be prevented from choosing popular or high-interest books that are deemed too challenging. Books that are a bit too hard could <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1111/eie.12043" title="Exploring the role of parents in supporting recreational book reading beyond Primary School">motivate students</a> to higher levels of achievement.</p>
<p>Students have reported enjoying and even being inspired by reading books that were challenging for them, such as J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings.</p>
<p>Silent reading of text books or required course materials should not be confused with silent reading for pleasure.</p>
<h2>3. The space is right</h2>
<p>Like adults, children may struggle to read in a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01930826.2016.1185854" title="Meeting the Needs of Avid Book Readers: Access, Space, Concentration Support and Barrier Mitigation">noisy</a> or uncomfortable space. </p>
<p>Schools need to provide space that is comfortable for students to enjoy their silent reading. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=370&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=370&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=370&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=465&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=465&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293310/original/file-20190920-22454-1f15qf3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=465&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children need space to enjoy silent reading.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/weedezign</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Opportunities to chat (before or after)</h2>
<p>Discussion about books can give students <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=702325343670795;res=IELHSS" title="Silent reading and discussion of self- selected books in the contemporary classroom">recommendations</a> about other books and even enhance reading comprehension.</p>
<p>But silent reading should be silent so all students can focus on reading.</p>
<h2>5. Inspired by keen readers</h2>
<p>If students see their teachers and teacher librarians as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eie.12126" title="'I don't know if she likes reading': Are teachers perceived to be keen readers, and how is this determined?">keen readers</a> this can play a powerful role in encouraging avid and sustained reading.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0004944119844544" title="Building a school reading culture: Teacher librarians’ perceptions of enabling and constraining factors">School principals</a> can also be powerful reading models, with their support of silent reading shaping school culture.</p>
<h2>6. Students have access to a library</h2>
<p>Even when schools have libraries the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-21025-0_3" title="Do Schools with Libraries use Them?">research shows</a> students may be given less access to them during class time as they move through the years of schooling.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01930826.2017.1340774" title="Choosing Strategies of Children and the Impact of Age and Gender on Library Use: Insights for Librarians">Not all students</a> are given class time to select reading materials from the library. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293327/original/file-20190920-22454-1us4b27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All students should be encouraged to access the school library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/mattomedia Werbeagentur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>7. It happens often</h2>
<p>This is particularly important for struggling readers who may find it hard to <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=702325343670795;res=IELHSS" title="Silent reading and discussion of self- selected books in the contemporary classroom">remember</a> what they are reading if opportunities for silent reading are infrequent.</p>
<p>These students may also find it difficult to get absorbed in a book if time to read is too brief. </p>
<h2>8. Paper books are available</h2>
<p>Reading comprehension is typically <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131518301052" title="Comparison of reading performance on screen and on paper: A meta-analysis">stronger</a> when reading on paper rather than a screen.</p>
<p>Screen-based book reading is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131517300489" title="The influence of access to eReaders, computers and mobile phones on children's book reading frequency">not preferred</a> by most young people, and can be associated with infrequent reading. Students can find reading on devices <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=381519903117510;res=IELHSS" title="Are teenagers really keen digital readers?: Adolescent engagement in ebook reading and the relevance of paper books today">distracting</a>.</p>
<h2>9. There is a school library and a teacher librarian</h2>
<p>Teacher librarians can be particularly important in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/04250494.2018.1558030" title="How do librarians in schools support struggling readers?">engaging struggling readers</a> beyond the early years of schooling. They may find it hard to find a book that interests them but which is also not too hard to read. </p>
<p>Librarians are also good at <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-ways-teacher-librarians-improve-literacy-in-schools-110026">matching</a> students with books based on movies they like, or computer games they enjoy.</p>
<h2>10. We need to make the school culture a reading culture</h2>
<p>Reading engagement is <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=232712882860246;res=IELAPA" title="The role of whole-school literacy policies supporting reading engagement in Australian schools">typically neglected</a> in plans to foster reading achievement in Australian schools. </p>
<p>Practices such as silent reading should feature in the literacy planning documents of all schools. </p>
<p>Allowing students to read for pleasure at school is a big step toward turning our school cultures into reading cultures. Students need opportunities to read, as regular reading can both build and sustain literacy skills.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=284%2C0%2C5466%2C3535&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=284%2C0%2C5466%2C3535&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293169/original/file-20190919-53507-sqd5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Reading should be part of the culture of a school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia</span></span>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-reason-your-child-wants-to-read-the-same-book-over-and-over-again-105733">There's a reason your child wants to read the same book over and over again</a>
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<p>Unfortunately, literacy skills can begin to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02702711.2010.505165" title="Addressing Summer Reading Setback Among Economically Disadvantaged Elementary Students">slide</a> if reading is not maintained. </p>
<p>We need people to continue to read beyond the point of learning to read independently, though research suggests this message may <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0004944118779615" title="Children’s perceptions of the importance and value of reading">not be received</a> by all young people.</p>
<p>Where children do understand reading is important, they may be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0004944118779615" title="Children’s perceptions of the importance and value of reading">nearly twice as likely</a> to read every day. So silent reading is important enough to be a regular part of our school day.</p>
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<p><em>This article was co-authored by Claire Gibson, a librarian who’s studying a master in education by research at Edith Cowan University.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Kristin Merga receives or has previously received funding from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, the Collier Foundation, and the Ian Potter Foundation.</span></em></p>There's a worry some students don’t get enough opportunity to enjoy silent reading in schools. Here's some advice on how to change that.Margaret Kristin Merga, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1232722019-09-18T20:36:43Z2019-09-18T20:36:43ZEver wondered what our curriculum teaches kids about climate change? The answer is 'not much'<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292926/original/file-20190918-149007-423qf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=376%2C557%2C3637%2C2252&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian schools are pretty much left to their own devices when it comes to teaching students about the climate emergency.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Suphakit Wararatphong </span></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong><em>This story is part of <a href="https://www.coveringclimatenow.org/">Covering Climate Now</a>, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.</em></strong></p>
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<p>Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing our society today, so you would think it would be an important topic for study in the school curriculum. </p>
<p>But in Australia that’s not the case. Schools and teachers are largely left to fend for themselves and use other available resources if they want to raise the issue with students.</p>
<h2>Put climate change in education</h2>
<p>Calls for climate change to be part of the curricula for primary and secondary education were detailed in 2010 when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) established the Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (<a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190101">CCESD</a>) program. It was part of the organisation’s effort to increase “<a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/addressing-climate-change/climate-change-education-and-awareness">climate literacy</a>” among young people.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gloves-are-off-predatory-climate-deniers-are-a-threat-to-our-children-123594">The gloves are off: 'predatory' climate deniers are a threat to our children</a>
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<p>The importance of climate change education was later covered under Article 12 of the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a>, which <a href="https://unfccc.int/node/28580">Australia</a> and other countries signed in 2016.</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/paris-agreement-work-programme">Paris Agreement Work Program</a>, countries have agreed to develop extensive education programs and to promote public participation in decision-making.</p>
<p>Some countries – such as Vietnam, the Philippines, South Africa and China – already have national education programs addressing climate change.</p>
<p>Australia is not one of them.</p>
<h2>People want action</h2>
<p>Australia has not designed, implemented nor funded a coherent educational approach to our climate emergency. That’s despite the fact <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/08/australians-overwhelmingly-agree-climate-emergency-is-the-nations-number-one-threat">poll</a> after <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-09-10/climate-of-nation-australia-attitudes/11484690">poll</a> of Australians show the majority want more action on climate change.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aidr.org.au/">Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience</a> identifies <a href="https://www.schools.aidr.org.au/">education</a> in schools as a priority in understanding risks of climate change. Yet education departments at state and federal level show few public signs of creating a coordinated curriculum approach.</p>
<p>Explicit links to the topic of climate change in <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Search/?q=climate%20change">national</a> and <a href="https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/Advanced%20Search?search_query=climate%20change">state</a> curricula are only found within the senior secondary (Years 11 and 12) and secondary (Years 7 to 10) Humanities, Geography and Science learning areas. Some are compulsory and some optional depending on the school and year group.</p>
<p>We can find no explicit mention of climate change in the primary (Years 1-6) curriculum, though students learn related topics on endangered species, renewable energy and natural disasters.</p>
<p>We predict that continuing curriculum redevelopment will focus more effectively on the climate crisis as its effects become more pronounced. But the current piecemeal approach doesn’t address the problem at scale. </p>
<p>For now, climate change is hinted at but generally unnamed in school curricula. Climate change education is certainly not mandated, nor is it directly nor sufficiently funded.</p>
<h2>In and out of the curriculum</h2>
<p>In the past 20 years climate change education has been in and out of the formal curriculum depending on the whims of government.</p>
<p>In 1999, the then Liberal environment minister, Robert Hill, released the <a href="https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20140311193740/http://www.environment.gov.au/archive/education/publications/discpaper/index.html">Today Shapes Tomorrow</a> discussion paper. This led to the <a href="https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20130904205116/http://www.environment.gov.au/education/publications/sustainable-future.html">Environmental Education for a Sustainable Future: National Action Plan</a>, which launched the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI).</p>
<p>AuSSI placed the learner at the centre of the inquiry process for transformational change, which is the ideal approach to climate change education.</p>
<p>A second national plan, <a href="https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20130904205109/http://www.environment.gov.au/education/nap/index.html">Living Sustainably: the Australian Government’s National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability</a>, was released in 2009. This revealed how Australia was educationally preparing itself for a systemic shift. Except that it wasn’t.</p>
<p>Early in 2010, the Australian government abruptly withdrew funding and support for AuSSI without explanation. The first and second National Action Plans were abandoned. </p>
<h2>Schools left to go it alone</h2>
<p>No overarching, national coordination has been in place since. Australian schools have been pretty much left to their own devices when it comes to teaching the climate emergency.</p>
<p>Children and young people are presently reliant on the initiative of teachers, parents, principals and professional associations to introduce and maintain sustainability programs to learn about their futures in school time. </p>
<p>Their alternatives are to rely on peers and on information from community and non-government organisation (NGO) networks.</p>
<p>For example, many excellent resources have been developed for schools, such as CSIRO’s <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/Education/Programs/Sustainable-Futures">Sustainable Futures</a>, <a href="https://www.coolaustralia.org/">Cool Australia</a>, <a href="https://futureearth.org/">Future Earth</a>, the <a href="http://www.climatereality.org.au/">Climate Reality Project</a>, <a href="https://www.climatewatch.org.au/">Climate Watch</a> and <a href="https://www.scootle.edu.au/">Scootle</a>. There are also the successful <a href="http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/our-work/our-programs-and-projects/reef-guardians/reef-guardian-schools">Reef Guardian</a> and <a href="http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/archive/archive-media-releases/media-releases-2009/students-learn-first-hand-impacts-on-climate-change-on-indigenous-communities">Sea Country</a> programs.</p>
<p>Catholic schools can draw inspiration from the Papal Encyclical, <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">Laudato Si’</a> (“on care for our common home”), and most schools promote energy, waste and water conservation.</p>
<p>In the last decade, state and federal governments have shied away from systematic, climate change education. That’s despite the real risks to all Australian children and young people who are facing the prospect of diminished lives without climate stability.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-attending-a-climate-strike-can-change-minds-most-importantly-your-own-122862">Why attending a climate strike can change minds (most importantly your own)</a>
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<p>There is much to be done within the education sector to maturely and responsibly address the risks of climate change. Denial, prevarication and obfuscation do not alter thermodynamic reality.</p>
<p>Education is central to climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. As effects become more frightening, it is reasonable to ask: what is being done about recognising and systematically supporting climate change education in state and national school curricula?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the short answer is not much. This may be one reason school students are <a href="https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/">taking to the streets on September 20 this year</a>.</p>
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<p><em>This article was co-authored by <a href="https://www.colliver.com.au/about-us">Angela Colliver</a>, an education for sustainability specialist who designs educational programs and curriculum resources for Australian schools.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123272/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite calls for climate change to be part of our education, Australia has not designed, implemented nor funded a coherent, educational approach to our climate emergency.Hilary Whitehouse, Associate Professor, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1219842019-09-08T20:00:16Z2019-09-08T20:00:16ZFewer casual positions and less out-of-hours work could help retain early career teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290612/original/file-20190903-175691-1nxt6qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=124%2C488%2C4283%2C2933&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It&#39;s estimated up to 50% of teachers leave the profession within five years of graduating.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/VCoscaron </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia, like many other countries, is grappling with the problem of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13540602.2017.1360860" title="International teacher attrition: multiperspective views">how to keep good teachers</a> in schools, especially those who are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13664530.2014.945129" title="Early career teacher attrition: new thoughts on an intractable problem">early in their careers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0004944117752478" title="Early career teacher attrition in Australia: evidence, definition, classification and measurement">Accurate data</a> on the attrition are not available, but it’s estimated <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13664530.2014.945129">up to 50% of teachers</a> leave the profession within five years of graduating.</p>
<p>This is a serious issue for a number of reasons we outline in our new book, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-8621-3_1" title="Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers">Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers</a>, out this month.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-teachers-pay-in-australia-it-starts-out-ok-but-goes-downhill-pretty-quickly-122782">Three charts on teachers' pay in Australia: it starts out OK, but goes downhill pretty quickly</a>
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<h2>A waste of time, effort and resources</h2>
<p>Educating teachers who leave the profession early is a wasteful and inefficient use of public funds. Educational funding is diverted from school resources and facilities to recruitment and replacement.</p>
<p>Schools lose the expertise of new, high-achieving graduates and are destabilised and disrupted by any high staff turnover. Student learning can be compromised by this churn. It takes time for students to build relationships and adjust to learning with new teachers who are not guaranteed to be as expert as the ones they are replacing.</p>
<p>As for the early career teachers, the costs can be high in terms of the social, emotional, economic and (potentially) geographic dislocation that can occur when a graduate’s personal and career aspirations are damaged due to their decision to leave the teaching profession.</p>
<p>This issue is becoming more serious in Australia because we are experiencing early signs of a teacher supply problem. For example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/seven-reasons-people-no-longer-want-to-be-teachers-94580">fewer people</a> are being attracted to a career in teaching.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/policyinsights/2/" title="The Teacher workforce in Australia: Supply, demand and data issues">growing shortages</a> of teachers in specific subject areas such as mathematics and science.</p>
<p>There is also an increasing <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/policyinsights/2/" title="The Teacher workforce in Australia: Supply, demand and data issues">difficulty in recruiting</a> teachers to schools in rural and remote regions, or in communities facing significant social and economic challenges.</p>
<p>If we don’t find ways to keep good teachers, it’s likely the system will have to cope with teacher shortages by <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/coming-crisis-teaching" title="A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S.">increasing class sizes</a>, <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7222" title="Teacher recruitment and retention in England">recruiting less qualified teachers</a> and allocating teachers to teach <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/policyinsights/6/" title="Out-of-field teaching in Australian secondary schools">outside of their field</a> of expertise.</p>
<p>Clearly, these ways of addressing a lack of teachers undermine the quality of education.</p>
<p>So we need to find ways to prevent good teachers from leaving the profession for the wrong reasons.</p>
<h2>How to keep early career teachers</h2>
<p>Our recent <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811386206" title="Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers">compilation of research</a> from a group of international scholars offers new ways to retain early career teachers. Two related workforce development strategies stand out from this work.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=902&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=902&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=902&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1133&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1133&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291208/original/file-20190906-175663-q1zzwu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1133&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Available as an ebook and in hardcover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-8621-3_1">Springer</a></span>
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<p>It’s well known many early career teachers begin their working lives in <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-8621-3_9" title="Reforming Replacement Teaching: A Game Changer for the Development of Early Career Teaching?">insecure, casual work</a>. This entrance into teaching often comes with low wages and few opportunities for the mentoring and other support that more securely employed teachers might experience.</p>
<p>In one contribution in our book, University of Canberra education researcher Barbara Preston’s argument is simple – rather than relying on new graduates to fill the (increasing) demand for casual work, workforce strategies should instead look to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>develop more robust ways to model the supply and demand for teachers</p></li>
<li><p>reduce the overall number of casual positions needed to staff schools by appointing more permanent teachers</p></li>
<li><p>professionalise relief and casual work by looking to create forms of permanent casual employment that are attractive for more senior teachers to take up (for example, as part of a transition to retirement)</p></li>
<li><p>regulate the forms of employment that can be undertaken by early career teachers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-8621-3_6" title="How School Leaders Attract, Recruit, Develop and Retain the Early Career Teachers They Want">Our research</a> confirms that principals also play a crucial role in shaping what work is like for early career teachers. </p>
<p>For example, principals can think about the spaces allocated to new teachers in staff rooms. It’s important to have spaces that are inviting, make teachers feel welcome and where they can talk or engage in the private work they need to do for classes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1359866X.2010.542234" title="Professional learning places and spaces: the staffroom as a site of beginning teacher induction and transition">Staff rooms</a> are also places where a lot of professional knowledge is exchanged and where new teachers can access the “know how” of more experienced teachers. These are important places where early career teachers can relax, take time out and refresh themselves for the next part of their busy day. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-who-feel-appreciated-are-less-likely-to-leave-the-profession-89864">Teachers who feel appreciated are less likely to leave the profession</a>
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<p>Principals can also restrict the extra work new teachers are asked to do out of the classroom, and position early career teachers as assets to their staff and the wider school community.</p>
<p>All these actions matter. They affect the relationships early career teachers build with their employer and subsequently have an impact on their view of the profession as a sustainable career choice.</p>
<p>We believe these human resource strategies will support early career teacher retention and reduce the attrition rate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michele Simons receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). This publication is an outcome of research funded by an ARC Linkage Grant and by the Principals Australia Institute. She is Vice President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education and a Director on the Board of the Media Centre for Education Research Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Sullivan receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). This publication is an outcome of research funded by an ARC Linkage Grant and by the Principals Australia Institute. She is Board Chair and Director of the Media Centre for Education Research Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Johnson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This article is an outcome of research funded by an ARC Linkage Grant and by the Principals Australia Institute.</span></em></p>If we don’t find ways to keep new teachers in schools then we face a teacher shortage, larger class sizes and more people teaching outside their field of expertise.Michele Simons, Dean of Education, Western Sydney UniversityAnna Sullivan, Associate Professor of Education, University of South AustraliaBruce Johnson, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1216692019-09-02T11:33:46Z2019-09-02T11:33:46ZSchools could teach children how to be happy – but they foster competition instead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290524/original/file-20190902-175686-1b3zbyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=248%2C0%2C4764%2C3391&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-school-pupils-sitting-on-wall-300290351?src=-1-7">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Diagnoses of mental disorders and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.12381">drug prescriptions</a> among school-age children have skyrocketed over the last two decades. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that <a href="http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA66/A66_R8-en.pdf?ua=1">20% of children</a> experience mental disorders – such as depression, anxiety and <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/">ADHD</a> – at any given time. </p>
<p>This is a significant problem in the UK, where one in eight children between the ages of five and 19 has been diagnosed with an <a href="https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2017/2017">emotional or behavioural disorder</a>. Even children as young as five are getting ill: according to the latest reports, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england-2017-pas">6% of five year olds</a> suffer from a mental disorder. The challenges are greater still for children from low income families, who are four times more likely to <a href="https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/fact-sheet-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health">develop mental health problems</a> than their better off peers. </p>
<p>While home life, friends, social media and body image all have an impact on the mental health of children, <a href="https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/the_good_childhood_report_2019_summary.pdf">a recent report</a> from The Children’s Society found that more young people feel unhappy about school than any other area of their lives. Yet a growing body of research from around the world shows that schools can actually help children lead happier lives – if they value such outcomes. </p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>Generally speaking, the UK’s education system – like many others around the world – is geared toward competition. International rankings such as OECD’s <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> (PISA) rate the performance of schools, placing pressure on governors, teachers and pupils. As a result, schools seem to value the academic achievement of students over their <a href="https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/2548662/1/The%20WHO%20Health%20Promoting%20School_GREEN%20VoR.pdf">mental health and well-being</a>, which is reflected not only in the way students are taught, but also how they are assessed. </p>
<p>Teachers also face a lot of pressure to ensure their students obtain the highest grades possible. This is also contributing to poor mental health among teachers, with many developing mental health problems such as burnout, which <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24721572.pdf?casa_token=WljMiAI8xicAAAAA:fQGyRsdseJ4ZxCz0b157VA_7ZhEXWOnQrRxQX-XPTbpYwHFRa7foZ4iOcKViHDeJan69v-bErQLK_2xRJBL1FNGeBElz7FBkatekffAiK4TnV2og8oY">negatively impacts</a> their performance and can ultimately lead them to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/13/teacher-burnout-shortages-recruitment-problems-budget-cuts">quit the profession</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290526/original/file-20190902-175714-f57ng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290526/original/file-20190902-175714-f57ng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290526/original/file-20190902-175714-f57ng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290526/original/file-20190902-175714-f57ng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290526/original/file-20190902-175714-f57ng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290526/original/file-20190902-175714-f57ng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290526/original/file-20190902-175714-f57ng7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A mountain of marking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-asian-teacher-her-desk-marking-388588402?src=-1-4">Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>While there are <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/801429/Education_inspection_framework.pdf">requirements</a> for UK schools to teach pupils how to stay physically and mentally healthy, it’s clearly not enough. All too often, academic demands on pupils <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1086/431180.pdf?casa_token=kmzyEr-NSR4AAAAA:oZ9zsV7ZQXCyR7cT8pRpNYJVsCxIBbj754AW29VdW-2-ef96NxGOaWo2Wop2r0Sz2OFi0Ua6veDGIF4FN_WrzRjf7UpF0btxjitRJLZ01gafhCenLVs">provoke a sense of rivalry</a>, rather than teaching them how to enjoy life and cultivate positive emotions. Yet educational performance does not need to come at the cost of children’s happiness and well-being. </p>
<p>Education systems, including the UK’s, have the capacity to respond to the growing mental health crisis among children. And research shows that promoting mental health and well-being in schools, on a par with core skills such as maths and literacy, has <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44875/9789241503648_eng.pdf?sequence=1">a positive impact</a> on the self-esteem, academic achievement, social relations, motivation and career prospects of pupils. </p>
<h2>The Nordic way</h2>
<p>To see how schools can teach pupils to be happy, consider the education systems of some of the happiest countries in the world. For instance, all five of the Nordic countries – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland – appear in the top ten happiest countries, according to the <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/">World Happiness Report</a>. </p>
<p>It’s well known that Nordic countries place a greater emphasis on <a href="https://www.cfchildren.org/what-is-social-emotional-learning/">social-emotional learning</a>, which gives children the skills and knowledge to recognise and manage emotions in effectively. This forms <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/807c/3297fdd2e64e3d94cbfeb76b72a95d6ae8db.pdf">the basis of well-being</a>, and can significantly improve <a href="https://campbellcollaboration.org/media/k2/attachments/Maynard_Mindfulness_Title.pdf">academic achievement</a> among students. </p>
<p>Nordic countries also value the judgements of teachers over national examinations, and schools are <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/best-education-world-finland-what-uk-schools-can-learn-a7319056.html">not rated or ranked</a> as they are in the UK or US. This prevents the education system from placing needless <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/how-does-finland-s-top-ranking-education-system-work">pressure on schools</a>, leading to less rivalry, stress and anxiety among students, and <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.co.uk/&amp;httpsredir=1&amp;article=2809&amp;context=ajte">lower rates of burnout</a> among teachers. </p>
<h2>Finding happiness</h2>
<p>When it comes to being healthy and happy, research suggests that money only matters to a certain extent. What matters most is <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10902-006-9023-4.pdf">developing self-knowledge</a> – that is, knowing how you think, behave and manage your own emotions – and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886907000359">positive social relationships</a>. This is evident in some Latin American countries. For example, Costa Rica and Mexico also score well on the World Happiness Index, and rank among the happiest countries according to the <a href="http://happyplanetindex.org/">Happy Planet Index</a> (which takes into account well-being, life expectancy and inequality, as well as ecological footprint). </p>
<p>These nations have a culture of promoting social networks of <a href="https://blogs.iadb.org/ideas-matter/en/latin-americans-happier-gdp-suggest/">friends, families and neighbourhoods</a>. Despite living on the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/inequality-is-getting-worse-in-latin-america-here-s-how-to-fix-it/">most unequal continent</a> in the world, research indicates that Latin American people <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/10680702010003011?casa_token=QUyoQGlSVpEAAAAA:pdQkhfWKv_Btm3nZqx2XN_EXOzdC8YzkvRCkPnsheOi1U657yCdYN8WnFYRLzf1MYD7zIO9aFVoP">are extremely resilient</a>, meaning they have the ability to successfully overcome adversity and enjoy life in spite of difficult circumstances. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.unicef.org/lac/sites/unicef.org.lac/files/2018-06/CandY_guide_for_governments.pdf">recent UN reports</a>, schools in Latin America are also doing a good job in promoting resilience among children. Environmental sustainability is also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073805930700051X">a key part of education policies</a> in places like Costa Rica. This promotes empathy toward other members of the society – a core skill of social-emotional learning. </p>
<p>My own research has found that education systems in both <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057925.2019.1647513?journalCode=ccom20">developing and developed countries</a> value forming responsible citizens through valuing equality, harmony and diversity among others. Yet none of the countries included in the analysis – China, England, Mexico and Spain – seem to place an explicit value on mental health in their education systems. </p>
<p>Education systems around the world can tackle the mental health crisis among children – if they set out to do so. And countries that prioritise children’s happiness and well-being offer a strong starting point. By promoting positive relationships over rivalry, and learning over league tables, children around the world can be given the chance to flourish. </p>
<p><em>The article has been corrected to remove a reference to <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/what-is-autism/">autism</a> as a mental disorder, since it is not relevant in the context of this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angel Urbina-Garcia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Nordic and Latin American countries, education systems promote well-being and resilience. The UK still has a lot to learn.Angel Urbina-Garcia, Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Studies, University of HullLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.